Orsino

???? 1989 - December 29, 2007.

That was the river... this is the sea.

Well, my goodness. It has certainly been a long time (ALMOST A YEAR???) since I posted to this blog. I tend to do more reading of other peoples' blogs and less writing on my own, I guess.

I'll try to get back into the swing of things. In the meantime, I'll just mention that I've read a few good books lately! I've read some heavy stuff and some light stuff: I'll mostly dwell on the lighter fare here.

"The Time it Takes to Fall", is a first novel by Margaret Lazarus Dean. It's about a young girl growing up in Florida, just before the first space shuttle disaster. Her father works on the shuttles, and most of her friends have dads who also work in the space program. It's a really wonderful read, with one of the most authentic teenage girls I've seen in fiction. Read it: it's funny and moving and really a lovely first novel.

Others I've enjoyed lately:

"In the Wood" by Tana French, a really different murder mystery/thriller with complex characters and an unreliable narrator. Loved it, though I felt the narrator was a little slow on the uptake at times.

"Little Stalker" by Jennifer Belle. A novelist struggling to write her second book becomes obsessed with a film director who lives nearby, and creates a teenaged alter ego through which she communciates with him. Funny and entertaining.

"The War Against Miss Winter", by Kathryn Miller Haines. A mystery set during WWII, with a struggling actress finding herself playing noir P.I. Good fun and an authentic-feeling New York setting.

"The Devil You Know", by Mike Carey. Carey has written such comics as "Hellblazer", and this first novel (I think?) is good scary fun. The protagonist is an exorcist hired to clear a building of ghosts, but finds out more about this particular haunting that the people who hired him really want him to know. Loved the matter-of-factness with which this world is treated; it's just like our contemporary world, except that things like ghosts are everyday, accepted annoyances.

"Generation Loss", by Elizabeth Hand. Hand is an excellent writer who rarely disappoints, and she doesn't here. A nicely spooky read with a complex protagonist and a vividly created isolated island world, complete with crazy killer and really big dogs.

And, finally, "Fieldwork" by Mischa Bellinski. A writer living in Thailand becomes obsessed with the case of an anthropologist who's in prison for murder. I actually read this one because Stephen King recommended it in EW, and while I don't always agree with Mr. King -- especially when he writes about music (let's face it, Steve... you're OLD), this was definitely one worth picking up. Well-researched and fascinating.

And last but not least: "Lullabies for Little Criminals", by Heather O'Neill. The story of Baby, a 12-year-old young girl being raised by a drug addict dad who's only fifteen years older than she is, this tells the story of her journey through tenements and foster homes and prostitution. And it's FUNNY. And MOVING. And I hated for it to end, because I loved Baby's voice so much that I didn't want it to stop. Highly, highly recommended; don't be afraid of the subject matter. Baby rises above it all.

You paid attention during 97% of high school!

85-100% You must be an autodidact, because American high schools don't get scores that high! Good show, old chap!

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Just got back from the dentist, which was a 45-minute visit rather than the 3-hour visit I got to experience the last time. Everything went well and I have no more problems, yay!

Just finished reading "A Taxonomy of Barnacles" by Galt Niederhoffer, which was okay but which boasted the largest number of editing errors I've seen in a book in a long long time. For instance, one of the characters briefly turned into another character during one long paragraph. Another character opened his closet to see a row of colorful "Oxford shits". Well, maybe he did.

There was also a lot of sloppiness like this: "As Billy watched, Trot wiped down the counters and glass cases with almost religious concentration. He mussed his hair and untucked his shirt in an effort to distance himself from the Upper East Side." The sloppiness? The "he" starting the second sentence referred to Billy, not Trot. Confusing, no? On another page, a character declares "Here, here!" in approval of a statement. It should be "hear, hear!"

And one that really bugged me, in reference to an old dog: "Age had weakened his old bones, preventing him from alighting even the distance from the floor to the living room sofa." Alighting? Really? That's really the word you want? I don't think so.

Are there just no copy editors any more?