The Sunday Salon

 

It has been a while since I have wrote this. The sad fact is that I have been struck with the biggest book slump and writers block in my whole life. It was so bad I could barley type my own name. I did manage to read and review a book last week. Wasn’t my best review ever but it was something. Better than nothing right?

I feel My love of writing and reading slowly coming back so it is at an end. Maybe my friends sugestions to go on walks and get out more helped. Instead of sitting at the computer tearing my hair out I got out of the apt and did stuff I normally don’t do, like goe for walks in 20 degree waether and it seems that a change of pace is just what I needed. Maybe I will incorporate daily walks into my routine.

What have you done to ease a reading slump and writers block?

Review: Total Oblivion

I love dystopian novels. There is something about an imagined world where all went to hell and yet people and things manage to survive. In a way it offers hope for the modern world. If worse comes to worse then if we look to dystopian novels almost everything is survivable.

Total Oblivion is a different kind of novel. It takes place in a future United States that has been invaded by ancient tribes. The tribes all use acient ways of fighting. The US in now divided into an Empire and other entities. There is also a mysterious plague that is going around.

The story is told through the eyes of a teenage girl. It goes from her having a normal life to being upended and having to live in a reffugee camp. Then her father takes the family down river to a supposedly new job. Along the way they encounter armies and other strange obstacles.

It also has a little bit of steampunk thrown in. At first I was taken aback my some of the descriptions (having never read steampunk) but a search online showed that this also falls under steampunk category. I am now curious to read that genre and have resolved to try it out.

I really enjoyed this book. Even though I had many questions left over at the end. What we find out is what the characters in the book would know. The author pulls off the technique brilliantly. This is a risky technique as in some books it would come off poorly written but with this book it seems right that we never find out exactly who the invaders are.It adds a bit of mystery to the story.

This is one of the strangest book that I have read. It is a good kind of strange.

The one thing that bothered me in this novel was the poor character development. Yes, I know this novel is plot driven but I feel more time could have been given to the character so that we can know why they make the descions that they do.

When You Are Engulfed in Flames

I have read most of David Sedris earlier work and loved them . So I was excited to pick up this one.

However this book I do not feel represents his best work. The essays were not as snarky or as funny.In his earlier work he is gifted in bring out the humor of almost any situation. During the time I read “Engulfed in Flames” I kept waiting for the funny to kick in but it never did.

The essay themselves cover the usual gambit from his family to his health. There was a essay on how and where he quit smoking. I felt that that essay should had been rife with his usual snarky attire but alas it was almost boring.

This brings me to my question. If an author earlier work is more funny or more entertaining than his current one, does that mean that his current book is somehow less than an earlier one?

I mean, if I had picked up this one first I might have said this was a good book. But since I read Naked first, I know this is just so so for him. I am uneasy giving it a lesser rating just because of that. What is your thoughts on this?

Packing for mars

To the average person being an astronaut is one of the most glamorous jobs out there. What could be more glamorous than going where so few people have gone before?

What most don’t realize and what Mary Roach covers in “Packing for Mars” is that there is a lot of un glamorous things that astronauts have to do.

Roach covers the topic in her usual lighthearted and funny take on things. If you have read and of her previous work she has the same voice albeit a bit more mature.

She also does not back away from “delicate” topics. Like going to the bathroom in space. If you are like me and never have given that aspect a second thought that chapter will be enlightening. It covers everything from the first fecal bag to the now top of the line suction toilet. She goes into her usual depth about how bathroom toilets progresses and the insensitive that emerge from having to deal with not having a place to dump the waste in outers space to if an astronaut misses the toilet.

She also deals with if anyone has ever had sex in space or in weightless gravity. She herself does a lot of research to be able to write detailed book about what it would entail in bringing live humans to Mars.She undergoes some of the same training that astronauts go through. She is complete honest and funny in her findings.

Perhaps the most important thing that she discusses is how people manage to survive in such closed quarters for the duration of the mission. I don’t know about you but I take my space for seriously. Which is why I live alone. But Astronauts when there are on a mission and even in the international Space Station must like in close quarters. So what kind of  effects does that have on them.

Believe it or not they actually have simulations of that here on earth. They put people into enclosed spaces and see how things pan out. Things don’t always pan out the way people hope.

There is a lot more that Roach discussed in her book. The whole thing is a fascinating journey into what really goes into preparing to go out into space. Perhaps, at least for me one of the shocking revelations was that an astronaut is not guaranteed a flight into space. He or she spends most of her time in earth simulations and hope that one  day they will get to see the glory that is outer space.

Friday Night Knitting Club

it took me a week to finsh this book. Normally I can finish a book in a couple of days but this book dragged on and on. I should have just quit the book but I am one of those people who must stick to the bitter end.

My first problem is that there seems to be no plot in the first half of the book. I understand that the author was giving background information but I feel it could have been done within the confines of a plot that actually moves forward. The first half of this book was filled with non events and the reader couldn’t tell where the story was going.

I knew that that Jacobs was attempting to weave multiple issues into the story. However what she did write felt more like it was contrived of stereotypical ways than things that you can really believe. In my humble opinion believable characters can make or break a story.

This book really for me at least raised the question of how much background information one really needs. Or if there is a better way of implementing the background information or if this was really not my type of book. If it the latter that makes me sad because I heard good things about this book and really wanted to enjoy it, but I did not.

Sunday Salon

I have been busy packing and moving. It has sadly cut into my reading time. I have one more big pile of stuff to go through then I will be all done and can devote myself to reading.

I have a library book that has to go back monday so I am going to spend the day reading that/ It is Mary Roach “Packing for Mars” I love her books and I am already enjoying this one.

This pictures shows the ARC books I have gotten in the mail over the past couple of weeks.

AfterI read all my libabry books that have to go back in Feb, I am agoing to devote myself to reading these.

The coffee has finished brewing so am off to read. What are you reading today?

Standing for Something

I am of the firm belif that we need to get back to civility as practiced in the old days. Don't get me wrong I am as Liberal as you will get but I feel that in time we have lost the niceties that make living more pleasant. When I saw this in the library I knew I had to read it.

The book list 10 virtues that will enhance anyone who follows them. It is not overly preachy or anything like that. Being the brilliant man that he was he puts things in such a light that even non religious people can read.

I loved this book. It really does name the virtues that if everyone practiced than this would be a much better world. For example it list honesty as a virtue. Most of us think that we are honest enough but this book makes you see it goes deeper than one would think. It explains even simple acts of dishonesty can pervade our whole life. It gives examples and shows how you can be honest and still practice compassion.