Book Review: Surprise Me

~ tahenryauthoress ~ 1 Comment

New Sophie Kinsella books, Surprise Me, on the new arrivals shelf. I love Sophie, I do. So I had to read it.

Basic Summary (Courtesy of Goodreads):

After being together for ten years, Sylvie and Dan have all the trimmings of a happy life and marriage; they have a comfortable home, fulfilling jobs, beautiful twin girls, and communicate so seamlessly, they finish each other’s sentences. However, a trip to the doctor projects they will live another 68 years together and panic sets in. They never expected “until death do us part” to mean seven decades.

In the name of marriage survival, they quickly concoct a plan to keep their relationship fresh and exciting: they will create little surprises for each other so that their (extended) years together will never become boring. But in their pursuit to execute Project Surprise Me, mishaps arise and secrets are uncovered that start to threaten the very foundation of their unshakable bond. When a scandal from the past is revealed that question some important untold truths, they begin to wonder if they ever really knew each other after all.

My Thoughts:

um, yeah. Good description. That’s the book.

The big “shock” is fairly obvious. I’ll give Sophie partial marks for trying to make the reader think one thing, while hinting it’s really something else, and then coming up with a third thing for it to actually be that is rather nasty on several levels.

It’s funny, Sophie’s books always are. And it’s believable. People do act the way she portrays them. But I knew what was coming. I knew how it would go, every time. Perhaps I read too much.

There was one thing that got me by surprise, but it made me sad. LOL.

Overall, very enjoyable read. Definite vanilla pudding for the brain category.

I’ve been thinking Thursday: Turkey

~ tahenryauthoress ~ 3 Comments

Happy Thanksgiving to anyone in the US of A. We’re not particularly united these days as a people or as a Nation but that is way more than I am prepared to tackle on this blog.

Instead I want to discuss something more serious. Turkey. Why do we insist upon eating Turkey for Thanksgiving?

It it the most boring meat on the planet. Why do you think you have to have stuffing, gravy, and cranberry sauce to go with it? Turkey is the white bread of meat. No taste of it’s own. And really, I have NEVER had a turkey that wasn’t dry. Granted they don’t all grow in your mouth like my grandmother’s did but still…

What are we even celebrating? Oooh, food. Most of us don’t need a banquet of food to stave off starvation. We need a banquet of diet before we keel over under our extra poundage.

This year I am boycotting Thanksgiving. In fact, I am going back to where it all started to begin a thorough investigation into the insanity that is this so called holiday.

Has the penny dropped yet? I’m on vaca. In London. My list is less ambitious than the average Thanksgiving dinner.

London Symphony Orchestra, Mousetrap in West End, Harry Potter Studio Tour, proper high tea, Churchill’s war rooms, British Museum, that underground roman museum of ruins, the name escapes me right now (keeping the kiddo happy). Anything else we get done will be gravy. So to speak.

Cheers mates!

Book Review: Goodbye Cruller World

~ tahenryauthoress ~ 8 Comments

I was so excited to see Goodbye Cruller World by Ginger Bolton on the shelf at the library. I remembered liking her first one and mentally noting to get the second when it came out.

Basic Summary (Courtesy of Amazon):

Normally, Emily’s eyes tend to glaze over when prospective brides go on about their wedding plans. But when the owner of the clothing shop, Dressed to Kill, asks Emily to design a donut wall for her reception, she’s immediately sweet on the idea. With the help of her father-in-law and business partner—the former police chief of Fallingbrook—she hangs the treats from dowels on the wall so guests can help themselves.

But that night, when the groom ends up on the floor with signs of poisoning, Emily suspects someone has tampered with her treats. When the groom dies, there’s no way to sugarcoat it: she’s got a murder on her hands. Despite a list of suspects as long as the guest list, Emily vows to find out who created the killer confection to save her shop’s reputation and keep the bride out of handcuffs. She’ll have to move fast . . . before the poisoner takes a powder.

My thoughts:

I finished this book more than a week ago. I’ve been debating whether to review it ever since. I have a rule about this. My first year reviewing I was still figuring out the process and I posted a review of every book I read. But by the end I hated putting too much unpleasantness into the world. So this year, if I can’t find three nice things to say about the book, I just won’t review it. Hence my struggle.

I just looked at my review for the first book, the donut thing bothered me again. I get that it’s a donut shop mystery but the sixteen word long description of every donut anyone ever eats in the book is too much for me. And a lot of donut happen in this book. A lot.

It was an enjoyable read, like the first one, up til a point. I was reading along,  smile on my face, ignoring the donuts, enjoying the building budding relationship, the funny ways people lie. And then, wham, the “solution” arrived (totally predictable – I actually thought early in the book I hope it’s not going to be one of those where x did it, it was) without wrapping up any of the loose ends.

I was heinously dissatisfied. Like when I order a Dead Elvis donut and there isn’t enough custard in the middle so the peanut butter frosting overwhelms the whole thing and sticks to the roof of my mouth. Like that.

I’ve been thinking Thursday: Belt Test Update

~ tahenryauthoress ~ 4 Comments

A few weeks ago I posted about my kiddo being an awesome human during his belt test and how he thought he would get marked down for helping several people rather than maintaining attention.

Results came back. He passed.

So technically he was eligible for the weapons class but he still had to get approval from sensei that he was meeting the other requirements.

He got it. Started weapons class the next week. Really good class taught by the black belt who has scored every one of his tests. Familiarity helps the kiddo adjust easier, so a familiar teacher makes for a positive class start. As I watch the class I realize not only is he lowest belt in the class, he is the only one at that level. Hrm….

Spring forward 24 hours to new belt awards.

It’s a really boring process. Call up kid by name. Bow to sensei, bow to sempi, take off belt, get new belt put on, bow to sensei, bow to sempi, bow to audience. Audience claps. Repeat.

When they call up the kiddo the sempi breaks the process to talk about what an amazing job the kiddo did on the belt test. He didn’t do that for any of the other belts awarded (12 or so).

Say what?

I think the kiddo only got into weapons because he helped the other kids on the belt test.

Makes a mom proud.

Side note: they were learning drops. he was sparring with a girl. Anyway, he was so stinking careful with her, she just kept backing out of the hold. I asked him about it later and he was like, “Mom, she’s half my size. I didn’t want to break her.” LOL Oh the things he’s learning about adapting in the world when you’re going to be six foot seven like your Dad.

Book Review: The Education of a Coroner

~ tahenryauthoress ~ 2 Comments

When I saw The Education of a Coroner: Lessons in Investigating Death by John Bateson on the new arrivals shelf I grabbed it thinking it would be a little extra research for the second book in my murder mystery series. I had no idea I would find the book so fascinating on its own merits.

Basic Summary (Courtesy of Amazon):

In the vein of Dr. Judy Melinek’s Working Stiff, an account of the hair-raising and heartbreaking cases handled by the coroner of Marin County, California throughout his four decades on the job—from high-profile deaths to serial killers, to Golden Gate Bridge suicides.

Marin County, California is a study in contradictions. Its natural beauty attracts thousands of visitors every year, yet the county also is home to San Quentin Prison, one of the oldest and largest penitentiaries in the country. Marin ranks in the top one percent of counties nationwide in terms of affluence and overall health, yet it is far above the norm in drug overdoses and alcoholism, and comprises a large percentage of suicides from the Golden Gate Bridge.

Ken Holmes worked in the Marin County Coroner’s Office for thirty-six years, starting as a death investigator and ending as the three-term, elected coroner. As he grew into the job—which is different from what is depicted on television—Holmes learned a variety of skills, from finding hidden clues at death scenes, interviewing witnesses effectively, managing bystanders and reporters, preparing testimony for court to notifying families of a death with sensitivity and compassion. He also learned about different kinds of firearms, all types of drugs—prescription and illegal—and about certain unexpected and potentially fatal phenomena such as autoeroticism.

Complete with poignant anecdotes, The Education of a Coroner provides a firsthand and fascinating glimpse into the daily life of a public servant whose work is dark and mysterious yet necessary for society to function.

My thoughts:

That summary makes the book sound like the boring non fiction slog I thought it might be. And that is so not the case. I don’t know if Ken Holmes is just an entertainer or if Bateson wrote him that way or if their combined efforts gel in exactly the right way. This book was fascinating, a little heart wrenching, and often amusing.

I think the combination of cases, behind the scenes lore, human behavior, and a coroner’s view of the police is what got me. I like to know. Everything.

I’m immediately struck by past arguments I’ve had regarding the police. I always argue that they are good people doing a hard job. But some of the stories told in this book make me feel less secure about that opinion. I also want desperately to go the local archives and read through cases like Bateson did. No time to go down that rabbit hole though. LOL

This is a super well written, very interesting book about the complexities of death and the investigation of death.

I’ve been thinking Thursday: Mean

~ tahenryauthoress ~ 10 Comments

We all have our private peccadilloes we don’t share with people no matter how open we may seem. I am no different. For a few months now I’ve been doing DBT, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy. I won’t go in to all the reasons this came about. This is just the ground work for the story to come.

We’re doing a module on Interpersonal Effectiveness.

Yes, everything has  snazzy name. This module could have been called “how not to be a dick and how to not accept dickish behavior from others.”

When I am talking to someone 75-80% of my brain is fully focused on them and the remainder is stringently editing all the things that come to mind to say. I agreed, as part of Interpersonal Effectiveness, to stop doing that for a week. To listen 100% in the moment to what the other person was saying and then to use the standard 3 seconds social pause to plan my reply.

Twice this week I was told I was mean.

Yup.

This leads me to consider other ways in which my brain works. Sure I can write 48K words in 6 days. My brain is that fast. All I have to do is put in the hours.

Then it needs to be stringently edited for a year before it’s ready for human consumption. LOL

Why should I treat talking any differently?

 

Book Review: Jane Austen, the Secret Radical

~ tahenryauthoress ~ 4 Comments

I’m not embarrassed to admit, I love me a bit of Austen. In fact, in high school in British Literature, the Austen books were the only ones I actually read all the way through. he-he

Basic Summary (Courtesy of Amazon):

In this fascinating, revelatory work, Helena Kelly–dazzling Jane Austen authority–looks past the grand houses, the pretty young women, past the demure drawing room dramas and witty commentary on the narrow social worlds of her time that became the hallmark of Austen’s work to bring to light the serious, ambitious, deeply subversive nature of this beloved writer. Kelly illuminates the radical subjects–slavery, poverty, feminism, the Church, evolution, among them–considered treasonous at the time, that Austen deftly explored in the six novels that have come to embody an age. The author reveals just how in the novels we find the real Jane Austen: a clever, clear-sighted woman “of information,” fully aware of what was going on in the world and sure about what she thought of it. We see a writer who understood that the novel–until then seen as mindless “trash”–could be a great art form and who, perhaps more than any other writer up to that time, imbued it with its particular greatness.

 

My thoughts:

I am guilty of allowing the visual image of Colin Firth coming out of the lake in his soaking wet shirt color my reading of Austen. I read the books long before that particular mini series of course but subsequent readings, adult readings, always hark back to Colin Firth in his soaking wet shirt. Let’s take a momentary pause shall we?

Mr-Darcy-Colin-Firth

 

Moving on. Helena Kelly’s arguments were vastly thought provoking and made me immediately want to reread all Jane Austen’s books. God knows when I’ll have the time, so for now I’m fighting the urge. But I think Austen extra brilliant now. She very effectively used the pastiche of romance to critique every major institution of her lifetime. And she did it without getting her head removed from her body of treason. That is skill. The fact that we’re still reading her 200 years later is all the more impressive.

 

I’ve been thinking Thursday: Good Parenting?

~ tahenryauthoress ~ 5 Comments

Have you ever noticed right about the time you’re ready to send your child off to a military style boarding school they suddenly pull some amazing miracles out of their ass?

Seriously, in the midst of a heinous day of the kiddo acting like an extra from a zombie apocalypse movie (just replace “brains” with “irritate mum”), he suddenly pulls off a stunner of a twist.

He’s at his karate belt test. He’s sparing with a girl who’s his own level, they test based on belt type, so she should know everything he does. They’re the pair sparring closest to the mom zone. I can hear him coaching her. “You have to apply enough pressure to keep my elbow straight.” “They’re looking for you to do three taps to my arm before you punch my ribs.”

Warms my heart.

Then it goes on.

They’re doing kata. Now at their level, a black belt demonstrates the kata so they can follow along. But if they want a higher score (ie they want in to the coveted weapons class), they have to perform without a black belt leading. One boy volunteers to go alone. The sensei asks if anyone else wants to go with him or if he’ll have to be all by himself? The kiddo jumps up and says he’ll do it so the kid doesn’t have to be alone.

Oh, just wait….

When they finished kata they are supposed to stand at attention until everyone else finishes and they are dismissed. No problem this first go. But then a large group of kids get up to do kata without a black belt and mine goes again. He finishes and stands at attention. Everyone else finishes except one girl. She is clearly lost. Kiddo starts kata from the very next move she needs and she follows him to the end.

After the test is over, the kiddo tells me “I’m probably going to get marked down for not maintaining attention but it was worth it to help her.”

Well, damn.  Perhaps humanity is not lost.

No military school for him this week I guess.

Book Review: 2k to 10k

~ tahenryauthoress ~ 2 Comments

My son bought me this book for my birthday but I wasn’t able to get to it until my August vaca. 2k to 10K: Writing Faster, Writing Better, and Writing More of What you Love by Rachel Aaron was a quick and easy read I enjoyed with an umbrella drink. Luckily, I was reading on my kindle and so could highlight lots of bits as they appealed to me.

Basic Summary (Courtesy of Amazon):

“Have you ever wanted to double your daily word counts? Do you feel like you’re crawling through your story, struggling for each paragraph? Would you like to get more words every day without increasing the time you spend writing or sacrificing quality? It’s not impossible, it’s not even that hard. This is the story of how, with a few simple changes, I boosted my daily writing from 2000 words to over 10k a day, and how you can, too.”

Expanding on her highly successful process for doubling daily word counts, this book–a combination of reworked blog posts and new material–offers practical writing advice for anyone who’s ever longed to increase their daily writing output. In addition to updated information for Rachel’s popular 2k to 10k writing efficiency process, 5 step plotting method, and easy editing tips, this new book includes chapters on creating characters that write their own stories, story structure, and learning to love your daily writing. Full of easy to follow, practical advice from a commercial author who doesn’t eat if she doesn’t produce good books on a regular basis, 2k to 10k focuses not just on writing faster, but writing better, and having more fun while you do it.

My thoughts:

I did highlight rather a lot but honestly much of her advice is the same ole, same ole you hear from everyone who speaks on writing.

Example: You can up your word average by eliminating the days you don’t write.

In other words, write every day. LOL. Ground breaking.

Her big secret to writing 10K a day — write for 6 hours a day. She gets her best numbers at the end of the 6 hour session often writing 1500 words that hour.

Ahhhhh….and that too seems super obvious. If only I had 6 hours a day.

The book is inexpensive on Amazon kindle. And she does a good job of correlating lots of advice you might have heard other places and using relevant examples.

Book Review: Take Your Pants Off!

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Get your mind out of the gutter. Take Your Pants Off! by Libby Hawker is not smut. It’s writing book.

Basic Summary (Courtesy of Amazon):

When it comes to writing books, are you a “plotter” or a “pantser”? Is one method really better than the other? In this instructional book, author Libbie Hawker explains the benefits and technique of planning a story before you begin to write. She’ll show you how to develop a foolproof character arc and plot, how to pace any book for a can’t-put-down reading experience, and how to ensure that your stories are complete and satisfying without wasting any time or words. Hawker’s outlining technique works no matter what genre you write, and no matter the age of your audience. If you want to improve writing speed, increase your backlist, and ensure a quality book before you even write the first word, this is the how-to book for you. Take off your pants! It’s time to start outlining.

My thoughts:

I did take rather a lot of notes while reading this. I don’t want to give away Hawker’s plotting device as that would defeat the purpose of her book. But I will say this, she makes a good arguement for using her method and presents it in a logical step by step way.

I haven’t started using her method and probably won’t. Perhaps my books are just destined to be lower quality. But her method involves character, that’s all I’ll give away, and my characters spring fully formed and let me know where they are going. That is never my problem when writing.

I think however there were a number of good strategies I will broach with my creative writing class this year.