I’m reading. I’m just not yet able to publish finalized reviews of books I’ve finished in the past, er recently. I’ve probably mentioned one or two here before and it is what it is. Today I will try the following, below is a long crazy list of many of the recently completed books and short stories (that I can remember) sorted by author and with an attempt a few words in thought-dump format on each.

• Megan Arkenberg’s “All the King’s Monsters” in Clarkesworld Magazine Issue #40
  I’m not sure why I really enjoyed this one, but I did.

• Persuasion
  by Jane Austen
  Heather forced me. No really, this was the latest CraftLit read and while I’m late to the Austen party, I found it a very interesting read. Thank you Heather. I think. I’m still avoiding A Connecticut Yankee but that will come in time.
• Raw Foods for Everyone: All the Essential Techniques and 300 Simple-to-Sophisticated Recipes
  by Alissa Cohen
  I very randomly picked this up off Strand’s book proof shelf. When it’s really hot outside I want to make sure we still eat something yummy and healthy. Do be warned, you’ll definitely be wanting a dehydrator after reading all the yummy recipes, many of them require one. I made a nice twist on a standard coleslaw. I am also not staying totally true to the whole Raw philosophy when I make recipes from this (I will add dairy or even cook things) but the flavour combinations are inspiring and good for another hot summer Monday. More on this one hopefully coming up next Tuesday.
• Amal El-Mohtar “And Their Lips Rang with the Sun” (Podcastle 111) (Rated PG)
  One interesting tale.

• Mercedes Lackey’s Mage Wars Trilogy.
  Several years ago, this was my introduction to Lackey and the Velgarth world. Over time, I definitely combined and condensed the three stories into two in my memory. It was a delight (and slight worry) to discover The White Gryphon as a surprise. I wonder why we have such difficulty remembering middle stories? (I’m sure pages are devoted to this very subject, I’ve never checked).
• The Secret Worlds Chronicle
  by Mercedes Lackey and Steve Libbey
  This is a podcast-based audio book series. The first two books, Invasion and are available in full and the third, World Well Lost, is into part 18. Metahumans. War. Interesting.

• Jay Lake’s Torquing Vacuum in Clarksworld Issue #41
• Tongues of Serpents
  by Naomi Novik
  This is Naomi’s most recent publication and I think I missed one. Laurence and Termaire are exiled, to Australia where things in this outback land of convicts will not be one of quiet. The story definitely felt more forced than my recollection of her earlier stories. I will rereview when I’ve read through everything again.
• The Library at Night
  by Alberto Manuel
  I wish I remember how I discovered this one. I confess that I enjoyed Manguel’s essays on Libraries as order, space, power, shadow, identity, etc, but I must admit that the pictures were my favourite part. I read most of these as we were finishing our renovations.
• McIntosh, Will “Bridesicle” (Escape Pod 247) (Rated PG) Very fascinating. I listened while mowing the lawn Friday afternoon. Death but not death. Hitchers. Dating. I’m still thinking about this one and where science will take us..
• Sean McMullen’s The Great Winter Trilogy
  I discovered this author by picking up the third in the series at Bookoff a while back due to the blurb on the back. Even though I tend to refuse to buy used series unless they start at the beginning. What caught my eye? Two words: Librarians and duel. Seriously. Cross not-steam-punk with not-yet-cyber-punk and mix in Australia. I found it highly entertaining. It began my Australian reading adventures of July 2010. I hope to read more of McMullen’s writing in the future.
• David J Schwartz’s “The Somnambulist” (Podcastle 112) (Rated R) Again with the death that is not death. Sleepwalking and squirrels. What more might you not want? Oh yes, a diamond.

What, you expected coherency? I think that clears out most of the list. I know there are titles of interest I’ve missed, but it’s a start. I also forget if I’ve mentioned this little bookcase before. E built it into the access to this portion of the attic. It pulls out on rollers. The two up top hold Lackey, Norton, and Novik, the next to bottom is for McCaffrey’s Pern, and the bottom is for a random assortment of classics. I have sff split between the library downstairs and this upstairs case. It’s not the most efficient use of shelving, but until I figure out what this portion of our collection needs, it works.

May you have an easy and meaningful fast.

Where to begin? Where to end?

I want to post quality, not mere quantity.

I’d like to group books in a series together, whenever possible.

I read a lot. Not all of it falls under what I’ve traditionally written about. I rarely mention Clarksworld or Escape Pod or Pod Castle or interesting pieces I’ve read in The New Yorker or The Economist, not to mention bits others write in these new media that I come across in my rss rambles.

I rarely write about acquisitions to our humble home library.

I feel overwhelmed right now faced by over 5,000 pages of books to review.

WordPress 3.0, my current version as of today, has simplified custom posts. I think I will work on setting that up and begin posting books and short stories as I finish and writeup the reviews. I’ll attempt to set up a separate RSS feed for them. It ties directly into other work I have on my plate so it would be nice to fix multiple to-do list items with one solution.

What will happen on alternate Mondays? I’m not sure.

Tonight a small bookcase migrated back down to my office from E’s, we laughed as we remarked how our offices are both converging on the same design with L-shaped desk and short bookcase on the right end, nearest the door. (Yes, we have been mistaken for siblings and at a few events I’ve been asked about my mother-in-law as if she were my mother. Mom doesn’t mind, though she wishes she could’ve traded me out when I was that obnoxious teenager all those years ago). To our office walls we’ve yet more shelving and we’re both still complaining about lack of shelf and closet space. I am amazed that I took a picture instead of filling this bookcases’ shelves. It’s full and there is already double shelving.

What have I acquired, cataloged, or read lately? I expect, at least in the foreseeable future, I will continue to update both my librarything (for books we own) and goodreads (for anything I’ve read) accounts. I’m a bit behind on updating goodreads, mostly due to the same deer in headlights feeling of being overwhelmed by all that I’ve read that I feel here. I had an ambitious thought that I’d catalog a shelf a day. Right. I made it through only a few programming books tonight. It’s very easy to be distracted when re-encountering old friends.

The problem is that I now mentally think I don’t have to do anything on the off Mondays and then, well, then there’s a scramble to remember all that I read and write ups I was holding and blah blah blah. When I was younger (read: undergraduate and earlier) I procrastinated all the time.

Grad school was the first time I found the wonder of completing assignments ahead of time. That was working here until we bought the house and my work picked up. I’ve been reading and writing a ton these past weeks, just not things I’ve traditionally written about here. There may be a new home for those things soon; I’m working on that in my free time. It’s just a lot. Mostly at once. The little time I have to catch my breath I’m scrambling to do all the little things that owning a real home (opposed to an apartment) require. I’m very thankful, I just wish there was a magical device that helped me work more efficiently and sleep more too.

Yes, we’re still chipping away at the library punch list. Yesterday, moments before the skies opened in New Haven, we crammed another ektorp jennylund into the car. We may have been close to gloating when a couple with a pickup had to return their sofa because it didn’t fit. They were looking at the bed of their truck and their measurements and wondering where they went wrong as I walked by to return the cart and recycle the empty box. “Where’d you put it?” they asked, surprise on their faces because they saw our little car. I smiled and said , “in the back seat, we did this a few weeks ago”. They shook their heads in amazement. We also added a benno shelf unit for our long ignored cd/dvd collection. Last night, as we put it together E and I joked about how they seemed outdated. I made quips about needing to find my record collection. I brought records to college, not CDs (I hated cassettes). I’m excited because I discovered that a benno will hold my mass market paperbacks. I think I need to install one next to the bed. My to-read list is crowding out my alarm clock. ;)

I’m in the middle of a few series (trilogies, mostly) and I’m attempting to hold writing up all my thoughts until I’m through. It’s a fun challenge.

I finished this one a while ago and wanted to write a proper review of it. However, as a considerable amount of time has now passed, I am not positive where the notes are, emptying supposed library boxes put more stuff into my office.

Squeezed: What You Don’t Know About Orange Juice
by Alissa Hamilton

Sadly, as I sit to write this review I discovered that I misplaced the many notes I took on this book. First, for a book published by an academic press I found it quite approachable considering I have little experience in nutrition, American food history, or the agricultural history of Florida. I learned a good deal about all of these topics and found the book informative and reassuring, in that I knew I wasn’t drinking the OJ my brain wanted if I bought it at the supermarket, and probably not even if I purchased the oranges there to squeeze myself. continue reading »

If you follow my goodreads account hopefully I’ll get the next few reviews up and queued to be reposted here before, yikes, July!

I can’t believe I can now say this, I thought we’d still be working on the floor, but that went down quickly the week before:

We have a library.

Sure there’s still an extensive punch list… but wow. This room underwent the most drastic visual transformation: it was the prior owner’s bedroom. The closet was ripped out, wall paper & chair rail replaced with paint, carpet replaced with float flooring… One day we plan to repair and refinish the hardwood floors beneath, but for now, they are protected.

This is a little preview, when the room is more completed I’ll make a panorama. Books still need to be shelved and reshelved and added to librarything. Trim still needs to be painted and put into place. We need more lighting and seating.

We also need to find the time to enjoy all of the newly rediscovered books! The most common comments uttered by both E and I were, “we own this?” and “uh oh.. we’re out of space on this shelf!”

Reviews next time. I just haven’t had a chance to clean up those scribbles…

Where is this going?

Last night I realized that all my library borrowed e-books were set to expire within the next few days. Because I only have about six Public Domain books unread on my Sony Touch, I downloaded four more that will expire in 21 days. (There will be a post on licensing to read. I need to figure out whether that’s a post for PenguinGirl, for Work, or for both. Oh and write it.)

This afternoon I returned three books, only to withdraw four more.

A swing by Book Off on my way to the train and another book decided to come home. It’s a book I want to reread because I was discussing it with a friend and it’s been a while. It was a dollar. How could I not? Book Off appears more prosperous in their new locale. I like the expansion of the English books, but feel that the Japanese craft books that I adore are no longer strategically placed. They’re still in the basement so there is some peace and quiet, but they straddle three cases and these cases are taller than the ones in the old location. I need to stretch.

I meant to write this post earlier and all my reviews were to be polished and use techniques found in my favourite guide but that was not to be. Why? I seem to be stuck between finding time to read all the books I want to— and to find the time to write properly about them.

Following are a few books I finished in the past two weeks. The reviews are nothing that I desired. I hope next time to do better. My goodness, it will be June!

Empire in Black and Gold
by Adrian Tchaikovsky

I stumbled across this author and this series by accident. I purchased the second book at Strand as a book proof a few weeks ago. I wasn’t sure if I’d like the series at all, the nomenclature often felt as ornate and detailed as a dragonfly-kin prince’s coat. But once I read past that and it became part of the language and cadence I was quite impressed at the depth of both world and character building. continue reading »

Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking
by Michael Ruhlman

The best kitchen purchase I made after acquiring a good set of knives, and a sharpening stone, was my kitchen scale. I love it so much I bought a second. I’ve been looking for a book to supplement Alton Brown, McGee, and my knowledge that most recipes really hinge more on the balance than of worrying if I’ve put exactly ⅓ of a cup into the mixing bowl. continue reading »

Catfantastic 1
by Andre Norton (editor)

Short stories + an editor/writer I adore + a subject I’m partial to (cats) + scifi/fantasy? Yes! It took severe discipline and a good amount of bribery to let this one last more than one sitting. I’m now on the hunt for the other four…

The Elvenbane, Elvenblood, and
Elvenborn
by Andre Norton and Mercedes Lackey

Overall this is a very enjoyable series by two authors I admire. The first two in this trilogy fit more snugly together than the last, but the entire world and character building shows experience and skill that many writers only dream of.

Books are being read, but it is at a pace of a chapter here and there of about twenty different volumes. I finished these recently:

Old Friend from Far Away: The Practice of Writing Memoir
by Natalie Goldberg

If you want to write, then write! Goldberg drives straight to the point and provides lots of great prompts within the three hundred-odd pages. Whether you read Old Friend from Far Away to write your memoir, or if you are use it to aid in character development for a piece of fiction, or if you turn to it to provide guidance in questions to pose to a relative to elicit stories to record– nothing will occur if you don’t write. Ten minutes. Go.

The Pleasures of Cooking for One
by Judith Jones

When cooking for one or even for two I find I struggle to adapt most recipes to fit our needs without either being buried in leftovers or scrounging around looking for something more just an hour later. I am quite saddened that the most simple of solutions to help make sure what I cook when for less than the standard four servings stared me in the face for years and I never thought to try it. When doubling a recipe I instinctively pull out a larger pot — when do I not do this when I halve? Hopefully Jone’s writing has reiterated that point and in the future I will not ruin yet another pot of (X) because I tried to cook a single serving in a large soup pot! Beyond that my other struggle is to shop across meals and use the carrots from this meal three days later as part of the next dish. Again, hopefully Jones has provided me some lasting insight. I can’t yet speak for her recipes — I have yet to try any of them. This first pass wasn’t looking for exact directions to follow but for philosophy. I come away from this table for one well sated.

Back to Basics: A Complete Guide to Traditional Skills
by Abigail R. Gehring

I forget how I came across this volume — probably by browsing various subject headings in my library catalog — but it doesn’t matter. I’m just happy I did and I hope soon to add it permanently to my own bookshelves.

While this book is intended to be for those desiring to go out and survive in a less urban and technologically minded manner I found it quite useful to assist me in building realistic scenes while writing. For example, on page 21 is a nice chart that describes various soil conditions and their usefulness as foundation material. The drawings accompanying various types of whatever is being discussed — such as dams (page 99) I found quite descriptive and useful.

For my life in suburban-urban America I found the section on soil improvement and greenhouse building helpful. I also found Part 5 – Skills and Crafts for House and Homestead cute and useful. Given my fibre-art bias I would have liked to see more — but there is a nice “Sources and resources” section and when combined with a clear description of winding a niddy noddy and various natural dyes (and required mordant) I will let it go. It is nice to see so many things covered concisely yet with enough detail that I have a good idea what I need to do to make it work (such as rug braiding).

I think this is a useful reference for everyone. It’s a treasure trove of information that most people once just knew and sadly we often can’t turn to a relative and ask “how do you…” This very informative and well written book lets you look it up and learn!

The Informed Gardener
by Linda Chalker-Scott

Several websites (which ones, I don’t remember) cited this book as a much read for the home gardener, despite those glowing recommendations I found Chalker-Scott’s slim and informative book difficult to get through. I don’t deny that it is important to cut through both the biased hype found in many garden centers or the waste-of-time folk-lore that is out there, but her style implying that dot-com as evil and everything peer-reviewed or dot-edu as the holy writ really turned me off. I know there are useful golden nuggets within but I warn future readers to beware the tone. That said, I really enjoyed the citations that allow me to, if I desire, read up and learn more from scientific research. The format includes clear summaries that are helpful and by-and-large color-free. I will find myself turning to this again and again and will just need to remember to ignore the overly opinionated writing and focus on the facts that I’m looking for.

編んでつくるぼくんちのルームシューズ
by 林 ことみ

This fun volume consists of 22 knitted house shoes (slippers) for both children and adults. As with most Japanese craft books, no knowledge of Japanese is necessary. The patterns are charted and schematics are included for construction.

I’m in the middle of reading Persuasion with Craftlit and being my usual speed reading impatient self I checked out the audio book from the library and finished it. I’m a late comer to Austen due to a series of at-thirty-I-now-see-as-unfortunate-events, but I enjoyed it and I look forward to finishing a pass with Heather’s insightful guidance.

I’m still acquiring and rereading Valdemar/Velgarth. There are the ones added and reread over the past two weeks:

Anyway, the result is that we ordered a sawsall. I’m amazed it took us eight and a half months of home ownership to bite the bullet and do so.

We are reusing what we can of aforementioned closet. Most of the drawers will find a new home when we renovate the garage work-space (which neither of us can use as it’s sized for someone 6 feet tall). I plan to reuse the cedar and line my sweater drawers and my yarn bins.

It’s been difficult for me to get into this project, no matter that I really want it to be completed. A trip to Target on Sunday morning found the incentive that I needed. This silver globe will find a home in the renovated library space. It excited both of us and while we’ve not sat yet to discuss accessory and decoration budget for the room, we knew it was an item we had to have. Now? I’m obsessively tracking and waiting delivery of the closet-destruct-o-tool.

First question of the day:
I believe a home library should be full of lots and lots of well loved and read books.
What else do you feel a home library should have?

I’ve also been reading and rereading quite a bit. I’m still getting into the hang of needing to queue the completed list for an extra week. I think this should cover most of what’s been read since pesach! There are a few more that I’d like to discuss but I’ve yet to figure out the best way to approach them.

Next weekend is Maryland Sheep & Wool (a.k.a. Maryland). We plan to be there on Sunday. I plan to finally work on getting this whole weaving thing out of my system in the most innovative and budget friendly way possible. I’m not entirely sure what will happen next Sunday, but I do know that I’m reading all that I can in anticipation. These three are the latest. I’m leaning toward a small simple rigid heddle, but I might mix a frame (which I’ve already made) with some rigid heddles and see what happens.

Hands on Rigid Heddle Weaving by Betty Linn Davenport

Foundations of weaving by Mike Halsey

Frame-Loom Weaving by Jane Redman

After an incident which began with several ebooks from the library and concluded with free shipping at Powells, I’ll be able to shelve much of Mercedes Lackey‘s writing of Velgarth/Valdemar. I have the Reign of Selany now complete and awaiting shelving. I’ve reread each novel as it’s come into my possession. I next plan to go back to the beginning and finally acquire The Black Gryphon and make a complete collection. The following images list the ones I own and have reread in the past few weeks. I have no idea why the first isn’t the same as the rest. It is one of the few I purchased new..

I would like to take a moment to state that I will very happily shelve any scifi-fantasy books you would like to give a new home. I’ve recorded most of the contents of this section of my collection over at LibraryThing. I also maintain wishlists at amazon and powells, if you are so inclined. I’m not forcing, I’m just stating… While I’ve been known to shop at big box stores, I’d prefer if you hit an indie or even better a used book store. Why? I believe this says it best.

Returning to recent reads, it is a well known fact that a favourite book of my childhood is The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. There are many reasons for why this book had no choice in becoming a favourite, but suffice it to say that early on when I discovered an author I adored, I tried to read everything they wrote. Imagine my surprise that while browsing iPod compatible audio books at the library the other day I discovered The Lost Prince! I couldn’t completed my transaction quickly enough and I begged all the various downloads and file transfers (to my humble and trusty 4gig 2gen nano) to go quickly and easily. They did. I will need to reread it and other “Lost Children” novels by Burnett before I write a true review but it was a great nostalgia ride and I enjoyed every minute!

Bonus question to tide you over until May:
Is there a book you recently discovered and were delighted and surprised because you thought you were well versed in all of the author’s work?

In short, I’m rereading all of the Valdemar and Pern novels. I’m adding these books to my personal library shelves whenever possible. Seven were recently ordered from Powells. I’m reading these with an eye to world building and writing styles. I find both worlds intruiging and I’ve seen more Valdemar fanfic but I’m fascinated by it all. I think it impossible to review either series or say which one book is my absolute favourite out of each. Instead I’ll ask the following question:

What is your favourite scifi/fantasy world series? What makes you keep returning to read more?

Veganomicon
by Isa Chandra Moskowitz

I prefer Lolly‘s review best, but this is definitely one that starts as a library book and quickly ends as a permanent edition to my own shelves. Don’t worry, I returned my copy to the NYPL! I made the garam masala roasted brussel sprouts. YUM!!!

Appetites: Why Women Want
by Caroline Knapp

This really really made me think about all the choices I make throughout the day, from what I chose to lunch to what and when I “reward myself for good behaviour”. Lots of thoughts here and maybe one day I’ll share more.

I completed a few books, but not as many as I wish, but I find the ereader has increased my available reading time, and that is a very good thing. My biggest accomplishment has been to give librarything some money so that I can enter our entire library into a nice database. E and I have been meaning to write the software to do this for the past five years. I have been a member of librarything since 2006. Since I don’t see us getting the time to write the software for our library since we still need to renovate the space, this made sense to me. I’ll add books as I can, this will be a long process, so please be patient (and expect that the craft books will be entered in total first.)

I hope to stay awake long enough over pesach to get some good reading in. With luck I might even be able to write a proper fifty word review! Exactly what books those will be I’ll wait to see, but following are a few I finished in the past few weeks:

Outliers
by Malcolm Gladwell
My rating:

Nothing exactly new and earth shattering, but it was something I needed to read right now. Lolly has a nice review posted at goodreads.

The Dragonriders of Pern
by Anne McCaffrey
My rating:

Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry Into the Value of Work
by Matthew B. Crawford
My rating:

I have quite a bit I can write on Crawford’s work and my own thoughts as a knowledge worker who also likes to work on tangible things and fix machines when they is broke instead of debugging a piece of software and guessing at what’s wrong due to extreme complexity. However those words will need some time to stew around my brain before I can let them out.

The Empress of Mars
by Kage Baker
My rating:

My first foray into Baker’s writing, and her Company novels, as a tribute to her life. I found it difficult to get into (what the heck was this about?) but once I sat to read without interruption I found I enjoyed the odd ride.