Got to be birds flying higher

This sounds like an awesome book. I was able to discover that the title is most likely Alternate Outlaws edited by Mike Resnick.

Originally posted by bugeyedmonster at Unusual villians short story collection book

Originally posted by ab_02 at FOUND :) -I am looking for a book, I cannot remember the title or author - title has 'tower' in it.

The recent theme of vintage ads with recipes reminded me of the useful tome that is The Christian Home Cook Book, a vintage cookbook that I picked up from the Mennonite restaurant in Linden, Alberta. As I noted before, the recipes don't have pictures and after so many years, the recipes are merely suggestions. What's a family sized tea bag? How large is a large can? Where do I get young chickens?

Unfortunately I accidentally made myself lunch for the week with this failed recipe. It sounded good (click for larger):





I substituted frozen meatballs for the chicken, used a can of condensed chicken noodle soup instead of Lipton's and added a cup of sautéed celery and onion to fill it up. Unfortunately the casserole came out humble, if not bland to me. I should have also stopped at one cup of breadcrumbs as two turned it into a strange interplanetary landscape. My husband said that the spices in the meatballs overpowered everything. Some spaghetti sauce rescued it, but after two lunches in a row I don't think I can finish the pan. I hate to throw food out, but you know, sometimes you just have to.

Oh, one more little insult to injury - the casserole pan wasn't big enough and during cooking, a large dollop of soupy cream sauce escaped, making for a nice burning smell to go along with tonight's dinner. Sorry Mrs. Orval Johnson of Walnut Hill, Florida, I gave it a shot!

I joined nacramamo as a fun way of getting some things done. It really reminds me of all the fun challenge communities that used to be on LJ. It also reminds me of how onerous it was to get a picture on the web back in the day, even when I did Thing A Day back in 2008. 2008!

I also finally joined whatwasthatone because my fondness for question and answer communities never ends. It all goes back to my dashed dreams of being a reference librarian ;-) By the way, I found a lost title recently.

Also welcome storm777, fellow nature lover and photographer :-)

The last three science fiction books I read were all by Philip K. Dick, and I think I have read enough of his work to be considered a Dickhead :D I finished The Man in the High Castle (1962) yesterday, and before that, The Zap Gun (1967) and The Penultimate Truth (1964). The Man in the High Castle was my favourite of the three.

All three have a lot in common - alternate post-WW2 outcomes are explored in each. The world has been divided up into various factions, each with its own mechanics for manipulating reality. Often times events are presented simultaneously where the characters don't realize that they are responsible, much like an artist doesn't realize how they can affect a viewer or a politician makes a decision that affects the outcome for citizens. I actually thought The Zap Gun and The Penultimate Truth were in the same universe, but a quick check proved that to not be true. The books were written co-currently and are very similar to each other. The Penultimate Truth was my least favourite, mostly because the last five or six chapters explain the plot and I found it too long and wordy. It shows signs of overwriting and once the plot twist comes, loses all momentum, and then ends on a cliffhanger.

Truth is based on some earlier short stories (especially "The Defenders") and feels cobbled together. What spoils a perfectly decent plot about a government conspiracy is the clunkiness of the way everything is named. Dick uses the same words across his works in a genius stroke of continuity, but they come across as not having been read out loud:

Artiforg (artificial organ)
Aud (short for audio)
Autofac
Pac-Peop (Pack-Peep? Pee-op?)

The most aggravating word is the form of transportation called a flapple. I even noted the use of disemflappled, which sounds like what happens when an iPhone user switches to Android. I actually kept reading artiforg as artifrog, which started to make more sense. The technology in the book is also painfully clunky - predicting a far off future where robots and cable TV exist. It's hard to remember that the concept of cable was pretty futuristic at the time.

In comparison, The Zap Gun was much better, but the relationship between the main character, Lars, and a Russian love interest, Ms. Topchev, disappears shortly before the end of the book. This leaves the story feeling unresolved. Same with Truth and Castle - both just stop. Apparently there was going to be a sequel to Castle, but it never happened.

Back to Castle, the use of the I Ching as a plot device was really interesting and added a fortune telling quality that's usually filled by a piece of magical technology (an oracle appears in The Zap Gun as well, but it's a piece of technology). I liked the modes of deception in Castle (most of the characters have multiple realities as well). One of the characters, Frank Frink, has changed his name in order to escape persecution for being Jewish. His estranged wife, Juliana, experiences a transformation after giving a mysterious truck driver a ride, and even objects have multiple lives. Perhaps one of the reasons I liked Castle so much was the loving attention paid to material culture - the piece of paper that makes an object "authentic", the way clothing and gifts are used, interior design. If I had read Castle earlier, all this would have flown over my head.

Not so much with the other two books, but the world of Castle is an incredibly racially divided one (Germans and Japanese control the world, and each takes about a third of the US). Some characters spout some racial slurs that were popular, although probably still not socially acceptable back in the day. I don't believe it reflects on the attitude of the author though.

Whenever I go down to Another Dimension comics, I never know what to get. I have most of the popular graphic novels and lots of stuff by Drawn and Quarterly. I really have to work hard to find something I want that's new. It also seems whenever I'm in there, a particular superfan of Red Sonja is too, so I was half smiling to myself as his assessment of the new Red Sonja movie floated over the stacks. But I finally found something - Shortcomings by Adrian Tomine. To mine reached a peak back in 2007 or 2008 with New York Drawings and I always meant to check it out. But it wasn't really a graphic novel per se, but a collection of drawings. I picked Shortcomings instead.

The title refers to a dick joke in the first act of the book, but also comes to represent one of the characters. Ben Tanaka is never quite the person he wants to be. He's self-absorbed and defensive, constantly feeling others are attacking his opinions. Ben, his girlfriend Miko and his best lesbian friend Alice, are the three main characters and all unlikeable in some way. Ben neglects Miko emotionally, is constantly angry and extremely negative. Miko is less than honest with Ben about her feelings in their relationship. Disappointingly, Alice is shown as a gay stereotype, almost predatory, in her constant search of sex.

I can see where this book would be challenging for readers because the characters are so unlikeable, and they argue constantly. I wish I had read it when the book first came out because now it reads like Twitter drama. In some ways, Shortcomings is a clever book because it's basically one big info dump on issues facing Asian Americans - multiracial relationships, self-hatred, identity, Asiaphiles and navigating representation in media. One favourite part of the book is when Ben poses as Alice's boyfriend at a wedding for the sake of her parents. Alice is Korean American and Ben is Japanese American - Ben wonders why he can't pass as Korean, but Alice assures him that her grandmother hasn't forgiven his "people" for WW2 atrocities and would not be fooled. Tomine never casts judgement on any of the above themes, he simply lets them be.

Unfortunately a huge shortcoming of Shortcomings is that the story is not fully resolved in a satisfying way for me. Does Ben get over his anger issues or overcome any other personal flaws? Miko and Alice get endings, but not Ben. It's disappointing after committing to 108 pages of conflict and angst. But I can forgive Tomine because I love the simplicity of his style and talent for nuance and gesture. He really is a master with faces and knows when to let a panel speak for itself. I just wish he could have penned a few more pages for a more satisfying ending - and it certainly wouldn't have to be a happy one either.

I decided to give up on reading Redemption in Indigo. This modern fairy tale lost it's glitter for me around the middle. There's too many characters, almost zero conflict, and despite reviews that call it humorous, I wasn't really finding it so. The story starts out with the story of Ansige, a glutton whose wife has run home to her parents. These first chapters are lovely and rich. Ansige is a dolt of a man, and his wife, Paama, rescues him from his mishaps. Somewhere Ansige leaves after getting his head stuck and Paama comes into possession of a cooking spoon called the Chaos Stick that a trickster figure wants back. But this figure also wants to court Paama's sister by using some other guy's poetry and somehow minor tricksters are inhabiting the bodies of children and I dunno because I had reached chapter 18 and it wasn't the halfway point yet and it felt like very little had happened.

Redemption in Indigo is highly rated and has won at least one award, but it's main drawback is that the tale comes across as if it should be spoken, not written, and as such comes across as heavily padded. The strength of the first few chapters that are so rhythmic and conversational becomes a weakness as every detail is drawn out. It's true that the chapters are short (18-20 pages on my Kobo) but after Ansige leaves, each page tap became a struggle. It was not a quick read at all. Paama is a bland protagonist, her only qualities seem to be excellent cooking skills, kindness and imperviousness to the powers of chaos. There's just not enough to make me want to spend anymore time on it, unless I need a sleep aid :D The sad thing is that I can see how the author is using her background in physics to embellish a larger tale, but I can't get past the style to get there.

This looks like it's going to be a campy hoot. And a good reminder for me to finish the series.

Watch on YouTube

Lauren Kate, you broke my heart!

Trust me, I do read books of a higher calibre, but Fallen was a guilty pleasure (and if you must read a supernatural young adult romance, it's way better than Twilight). I was eager to find out what finally happens to Lucinda and Daniel. There's a saying that goes something like readers will follow an author anywhere...through bad writing and plot holes, as long as you give them an ending they want. In this fourth and final book in the Fallen series, readers cross continents, thrill and sigh as Lucinda and Daniel try to defeat Lucifer and break the curse that has trapped them in a crazy eternal love struggle for thousands of years. The premise of the book is so cheesy, but the supernatural romance and passion between the two made it worth seeing to the end.

( But the ending...spoilers! )