Armchair BEA - Beyond The Blog

Today the organizers of Armchair BEA have asked us to share our top tips for getting beyond our blogs. Sadly, I have none. Two years ago, I kind of stumbled across the opportunity to write for a local news/human interest/events website. I was writing more or less monthly columns about reading and the local book community. And then last year happened. It was the year from hell and I found that I not only didn't have the time to write the column, I had no inspiration to do it. I miss it - and one of these days I'm going to make myself take the time to write again. If you're interested in writing, you might look for a local website like mine (omaha.net) and see if they're looking for writers. It's a great opportunity to spread your writing wings.

One of the topics that came up in this discussion of things "beyond the blog" is monetizing our blogs. There are some excellent blogs out there that have advertising or are sponsored by businesses. I've had the opportunity to monetize my blog in that way; it would be wonderful to earn money for something I'm doing anyway. But. Once someone is paying me, I would feel obligated to produce content on a regular basis and to really work to pump up my numbers. I just don't want to do that. For now, this blog is mine. If I don't want to or don't have time to post more than twice in a week well then, I don't. I don't worry that I'm letting anyone down. 

What I'd most like to find the time to do again is write for me, to journal, to write short stories, to get back to the novel I was working on a few years back. I don't know that I have what it takes to be published. The more I read, the less confidence I have in my own writing; on the other hand, the more I read, the more I think that there is room out there for great stories and I think I can do that.Who knows, maybe one day I'll be reading reviews of my own book on book blogs!

So Much For That by Lionel Shriver

So Much For That by Lionel Shriver
Published March 2011 by HarperCollins Publishers
Source: Bought this one for book club

Shep Knacker has been saving for all of his married life for The Afterlife, a time when he and his family will just pack up and move onto a life somewhere else, some place where they won't have to work at jobs they don't like, some place far away from the life they have led. And he doesn't want to wait until normal retirement, he wants to do it while he's still young enough to enjoy it. The family has never gone on vacations, they've gone on research trips and Shep has amassed a wealth of knowledge about all of the places they've investigated. To prepare for The Afterlife, Shep and his wife, Glynnis, have sold their home and he has sold his business and for seven years Shep has been waiting and planning for the day to arrive when they will leave. But Glynnis has never fully signed on to the plan, something that has annoyed Shep but has never stopped him from planning. Just when Shep has decided he is leaving for the island he has finally settled on, with or without Glynnis and their son, Glynnis announces that she has mesothelioma, an extremely rare and extremely deadly form of cancer.

Despite his obsession with The Afterlife, Shep has always been the one that did the right thing, that made sure everyone was taken care of, particularly financially. So he is not about to leave Glynnis to fight this battle on her own. Particularly now that she needs him to keep working for the schmuck that bought his company so she can have the health insurance she so desperately needs.

I am sorry to say that I foisted this one off on the Omaha Bookworms. When another member and I couldn't talk them into reading Shriver's We Need To Talk About Kevin because the subject matter frightened them off, I suggested with at least try another Shriver novel. I owe them all an apology. This book is too long, it has too many subplots, Shriver tries too hard to make the reader angry (okay, on this she succeeds) and I'd be surprised to find anyone who cared about any of the characters.

The Knackers have a best friend who is just angry about everything - he is forever ranting about one thing or another. In fact, there is hardly a subject of interest when it comes to public interest that Shriver doesn't have Jackson raving about. So I'm certain that her intent is to fire up her reader. But I just found him ridiculous, just as he wife, his friends and his coworkers did. If it's that bad, do something to try to change it.

I also couldn't figure out if Shriver had just not done a very good job researching health insurance or if she had deliberately chosen to give the Knackers the worst possible health insurance on the planet. I've working in insurance for more than a dozen years as well as having dealt with that many different health plans over the years personally and I have never encountered a plan where you could eat through half a million dollars in a year. Never. First of all, the providers wouldn't expect it to all be paid that quickly. Secondly, I have never seen a plan without an out-of-pocket maximum, which would limit the liability of the insured. If you actually had a group plan as bad as the one the Knackers had, there was no point in holding onto a job just for the insurance.

I had to force myself through this one and only did that so I would be able to discuss it with my group. Skip this one - read We Need To Talk About Kevin instead. It is painful in a way that will stick with you and make you want to talk about it with everyone who reads it. This one was painful in a way that just made me want to forget about it.

Armchair BEA - The Best of 2012

Today for Armchair BEA we're highlighting our favorite books from 2012 and those that are being promoted at BEA that we're hoping will become favorites. If you look above, you'll see that I've got a tab for my favorites - unfortunately I notice that it hasn't been updated in some time. True, I haven't finished a lot of books in the past couple of months but I have just added a couple of books to the list. Hands down, my favorite book of the year was Rules of Civility by Amor Towles. The biggest surprise for me this year was Whatever You Love which I didn't know a lot about going in but couldn't put down (well, except for that part where I threw the book across the room!). My favorites for this year are a good indication of the mix of reading I do; the ten books listed include three non-fiction books, two classics, and a mix of current fiction and historical fiction. Of course, looking at the books I've got coming up to read yet this year, this list is bound to change.

Looking forward, I'm definitely seeing some titles from BEA that look like they have the potential to make my list:

Chanel Bonfire: A Memoir by Wendy Lawless
NW: A Novel by Zadie Smith
City of Women by David Gillman
Marmee and Louisa by Eve LaPlante
Killing The Poormaster by Holly Metz
The Caliph's Splendor by Benson Bobrick
The Inventor and The Tycoon by Edward Ball
The Bronte Sisters by Catherine Reef
Custer by Larry McMurtry
The Twelve Tribes of Hattie by Ayana Mathis

Looking forward to seven more months of great reading! What are you looking forward to?

Armchair BEA - Introductions

It's that time of year again - when bloggers nationwide start buzzing about Book Expo America being held this week in New York City. Much as we'd all love to be there (maybe next year!), most of us won't be. Thanks to some amazing bloggers, we'll still get to share in some of the fun with Armchair BEA. Hopefully I won't bore all of those who aren't bloggers but I'm going to get out my pictures of New York City from my honeymoon and pretend like I'm there this week learning about all of the upcoming books and listening to authors, publishers and other bloggers take books!

The organizers of Armchair BEA have asked us to share a little about ourselves to kick off the week:

I'm a wife, mom, reader, and lazy gardener who loves movies, music, and entertaining. I got into blogging as a way to record my thoughts on books, interact with other readers and to learn something new. I can't believe I've been blogging for three years already!

One of my favorite features on my blog is Fairy Tale Fridays. It's been largely missing for a few months recently due to a Bleak House readalong and other life events but it's making a comeback next week. It was inspired by the Omaha LitFest a couple of years ago and might focus on new books or movies, fairy tale authors or illustrators, or it may be a review of new or classic fairy tales...or both. I can't wait to pull out my books again!

My reading tastes have not necessarily changed since I started blogging but they have certainly expanded and I push myself to read more of the things that used to be on the fringe of my reading. I definitely read more nonfiction, although that has as much to do with having had more time to listen to NPR in the past few years. Blogging certainly has opened my eyes to books from all over the world as I've been exposed to new books and "met" new people from all over the world.

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
Published in the U.S. September 2008 by Knopf Doubleday Publishing
Source: my copy courtesy of my parents

Carl Mikeal Blomkvist, a journalist facing prison time after an article he wrote for his magazine gets him convicted of libeling a wealthy businessman, has just been offered a most unusual job. Under the guise of writing a novel about his family, Henrick Vanger has hired Blomkvist to find the killer of his beloved niece. There are a few problems with the assignment - it means Blomkvist has to go live on the Swedish island most of the older members of the Vanger clan call home, no body was ever found, the girl went missing 30 years ago, and most of the family doesn't want the old man's obsession humored.

Lisbeth Salander is a 24-year-old computer hacker/private investigator who is hired by Vanger's lawyer to investigate Blomvkist before he is hired and who soon finds herself drawn into the case as well as into Blomvkist's life.

Blomkvist certainly has some moral-compass issues, sleeping his way through the book. Surprisingly, this didn't really seem to bother me as much as it probably should have. On the other hand, here is a guy who is greatly concerned with uncovering corruption and he does genuinely seem to have a soft spot for the women he is involved with.

Lizbeth Salander is one of the most profoundly damaged characters I've found in a book. Truly horrible things have happened to her all of her life so she may be forgiven for being a person who is utterly incapable of connecting with others and who has a major anger control problem.

Strangely, both of these characters managed to make me truly care about them. This despite, or maybe because, I'd already seen the Swedish adaptations of the books and knew more about these characters than someone who has just picked up the books knows as they are reading.

There were some very strange things about the writing of this book that made me think "whaaaa." Very detailed descriptions of particular computer models, an actual website address. These were things that had no purpose in the book and, frankly, will date the book in no time. There are so many characters in the book that someone (Larsson? his editor? the publisher?) thought a family tree at the front of the book was needed. Even then I had to make my own so that I could make notes about the characters and be able to track who was who without having to flip back and forth. Sure, the more characters, the greater the mystery. But did we really need to know about the Vanger family four or five generations back? A less compelling story line might not have survived being burdened with all of this. Fortunately for Larrson, he was able to craft a compelling plot with enough mystery to keep the reader guessing.

Larsson definitely created a unique set of characters to set up this series and I definitely got wrapped up in the story but I'm not sure that I "got" what made this book an international sensation over other books about serial killers. That being said, I'm eager to move onto the next book in the series.

Sunday Salon - June 3

What a lovely weekend we've had after a week that was cool enough it found me pulling out a turtleneck to wear to work on Friday. I would love to have had time yesterday to sit out on the patio yesterday and read - may yet find time for that today. We're hoping to get my great-nieces over to play this afternoon and if that happens, there will be no reading time for me!

Speaking of little people, check out these book-based cakes! When my kids were younger, I used to pride myself on making great birthday cakes but none of them held a candle to these! Of course, these are all made by bakeries - where they have all the great tools right at hand and no toddlers under foot.

We were cleaning Miss H's room yesterday (who knew, she has a floor and a walk-in closet!) and discovered her babysitting bag full of great kids books. She hasn't done any babysitting for a while so I suppose it would make sense to get rid of those books but I have such a hard time getting rid of beloved children's book. Much harder for me to do that than to part with the books I've read.

Here's a new children's book by Daniel Pinkwater I just discovered called Mrs. Noodlekugel. It's just the kind  of book I would have loved for my kids. I'm thinking maybe Christmas gifts - I love to give books to the little kids. Found this one on Boing Boing, reviewed by Cory Doctorow. He does a lot of reviews and other articles there. If you're into largely unusual kinds of reads and interesting nerdy things, Boing Boing is a great site with very good writing.

I'm reading Equal of the Sun this week for a TLC Book Tour and I'm hoping to get started on this month's Omaha Bookworms selection as well. What are you reading this week?

Summer Reading Plan

I've been seeing summer reading lists popping up all over the internet and thought it might be a good idea to put one together to keep myself on track. Oh sure, I have  a calendar with all of my reading commitments on it but it would be so easy to become distracted on a beautiful summer evening!

I've got three books to read this summer for the Omaha Bookworms Book Club. First up is Douglas Coupland's Generation A. This one is certainly out of my usual comfort zone but that's part of the beauty of being in a book club. For July we're reading Lucy Ferriss' The Lost Daughter which was recommended by Mari of Bookworm With A View. We finish up the summer with Larry McMurtry's Lonesome Dove, which one of our members has been raving about for years. Again, this one is not something I would usually pick up but who knows, maybe I'll discover a new genre I love.

The books I need to review this summer include:
Dead Beautiful by Melanie Dugan (reviewing June 13)
Equal of the Sun by Anita Amirrezvani (reviewing June 18)
My Dear I Wanted To Tell You by Louisa Young (reviewing June 27)
Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter (reviewing July 5) - author of The Financial Lives of the Poets
The Virgin Cure by Ami McKay (reviewing July 17) - author of The Birth House
The Flight of Gemma Hardy by Margot Livesey (reviewing July 19)
The World We Found by Thrity Umrigar (reviewing August 6) - author of The Space Between Us
The Baker's Daughter by Sarah McCoy (reviewing August 27)

I'm thinking I also need to read one book that screams "summer read" in the next three months. I think that will be J. Courtney Sullivan's Maine which I had hoped to read last summer but never got to. I'd also like to work on a couple of books for challenges. Perhaps a re-read of Jane Eyre which will count toward the Gilmore Girls Challenge as well as being a great accompaniment to The Flight of Gemma Hardy. I think something light to fill out the schedule as well, perhaps a re-read of The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood for the Gilmore Girls Challenge. That looks like a ridiculous lot of reading for a person that has almost no vacation time yet. Hmm, we'll just have to see how willing I am to abandon housework this summer!