Linus's Blanket

Honey Badger Don’t Care: Randall’s Guide to Crazy Nastyass Animals by Randall – Book Review

Nicole — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 07:52:06 PST

If you haven’t already, meet the Honey Badger, voiced by Randall. Dubbed the “Crazy Nastyass”, this fearless creature fights all kinds of wild life in order to eat and take whatever it wants, and basically takes no shit off anyone and doesn’t give a shit about anything. In this book, he basically gives us the lowdown on other ugly, crazy, nastyass creatures that are found in the wild, some of which are endangered animals.

Pop culture idiot that I am, I first heard of the honey badger, and resultant phenomenon of Randall, when I was sitting in a bar with a friend, looking over the cocktail menu. There was one called a honey badger, no doubt full of crazy, nastyass ingredients, which I can no longer recall. She found it very amusing. I had no idea why this was so funny. She was shocked I hadn’t heard, “Honey badger don’t care. Honey badger don’t give a shit.” Noted. I probably would not have picked up a copy of this book without having had that conversation.

Randall takes an irreverent approach (understatement of the year) in describing the beasts mentioned in his book. His view is that the average person really doesn’t want to be bored with scientific classifications and boring details of animal existence. We want the nitty-gritty. What they look like, what disgusting things they eat, how they mate and how they fight. Quite a few of the animals featured are badasses of the animal kingdom. The Tasmanian Devil is nicknamed ”Friend of Satan”, and a picture of it is captioned, “We’ll come out and play, but then we’ll have to bite your face. OK?” Yikes.

I didn’t read it all in one sitting. I found it was better, and much funnier, to approach each animal anew. If you missed all the details on the Honey Badger, not to worry, he’s the first animal profiled in the book, and then such creatures as the the Opossum, the Aye Aye, the Pink Fairy Armadillo, the Tasmanian Devil, the Emperor Tamarin, the Tarsier, the Solenodon, the Wombat, the American Bullfrog, and more. The language is vulgar (much more so than what’s in this review). The mating habits of the animals along with their anatomy, are provocatively discussed using slang and off-color humor, and the pictures are plentiful and hilariously captured. It makes a great gift for the animal lover in your life…ahem…as long as they are of a certain age. Recommended.

Netgalley.

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Out of Twenty: Alex George, Author of The Good American, Answers Six Questions

Nicole — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 08:50:18 PST

In this version of twenty questions, I send a list of questions to a willing ~~victim~~ author and they choose their own interview by choosing which questions, and how many questions, they want to answer! It is early days in 2012 reading, but already Alex George’s A Good American stands out as a favorite for the year. Laughing and crying through a books tends to shift it to that category. Here is what Alex had to say about reading, writing, and more specifically, how reading mediocre books got him to where his today.

Would you give us a bit of introduction and let my readers know who you are, how you got started writing, and what kind of books you like to write?

I am an Englishman, but I have lived in Missouri for almost nine years now. When I’m not writing or being a dad to my two wonderful children, I run my own law firm. I am quite busy!

I began writing almost by accident. I’ve always read a lot, and at some point during the mid-1990s I hit a particularly barren spell of mediocre books. I began to complain to anyone who would listen about how poorly written they were. These rants usually ended with the blithe assertion that “I could do better than that.” Eventually it was gently suggested to me that rather than go on endlessly about it, I should shut up and actually do it. So I did. And believe me, nobody is more surprised than I am to discover myself here now.

As for the kind of books I like to write, well. I started this book with one overarching aim: to tell a really good story. I hope I have done that. It would be nice to think that the characters might linger awhile with the reader, that their stories and adventures strike a chord. Good storytelling is about making connections, pulling readers into your world and taking them on a journey. I hope I have connected. I hope people enjoy the trip.

I am often struck by the different ways writers respond to the process of writing a book. Linus’s Blanket refers to my use of reading and other activities as a means of escape and comfort, can you share with us any routines, food or recipes, or favorite books or rituals that help you thorough the writing process?

Being a lawyer can be a very time-consuming profession. There are often late nights at the office and demanding clients to distract me. Consequently I realized early on that the only way I would find time to write every day was if I got up early to do so. (And I do need to write every day. I am a creature of habit.) So I began getting up at six o’clock every morning and wrote for an hour before going to work. It’s a slow way of writing books, but it works for me. These days, though, I get up at five. More writing gets done, but also a lot more yawning. I have been known to fall asleep while reading to my daughter before bedtime.

One ritual that I could not live without is my regular communion with my espresso machine during my morning writing stints – although at this point it’s really more of a medical procedure than a ritual. I am sure I suffer from a clinical addiction to caffeine.

I write incredibly, painfully slowly, correcting and rewriting as I go along. I expect this process runs counter to just about every how-to-write manual out there. No quick first drafts for me. I also, most unprofessionally, write very organically, in that I never know how a story will end when I begin it. Consequently my characters often go off and do unexpected things and I’m never quite sure where the story is going. It can make the process more entertaining, but also more nerve-wracking.

I very quickly discovered a deep and profound contentment in the process of writing, similar to the one that my narrator James discovers in the novel. I love to sit down each morning and immerse myself in the world I have concocted in my head. Characters take on lives of their own; unexpected things happen; I find myself moved and engrossed by the adventures unraveling in these worlds I have created. And, at the end of it all, there is the satisfaction of having made something new. There’s a wonderful Stephen Sondheim song, “Finishing the Hat,” which is in part about the act of creating something out of nothing. I love to finish hats.

Write the question you would most like to answer in an interview, and then answer it.

The most interesting question that I’ve been asked in relation to this book, and which I’ve been pondering ever since, is this: What is a Good American?

I suspect that the answer may lie in the founding documents of this country, which to my mind are two of the most inspiring documents ever written. Even if their spirit has not always been adhered to in practice over the past couple of centuries, the principles and beliefs that underlie the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution remain unimpeachable. Freedom, tolerance, diversity, equality – in my view, living in accordance with those concepts would be a good start to becoming a good American.

People live in stories, we are surrounded by them. What was it about this the story that made it the one you had to tell at this time? What impact did telling this story have on your life? Did you find that it had changed you?

Before starting A Good American, I had begun, and abandoned, a couple of other ill-fated novels, and was casting about for ideas, waiting for one to catch. Some of the most common advice given to writers is “Write what you know.” It’s a fine theory, but probably only if you know something worth writing about. As I was pondering this, it occurred to me that the experience of packing up my life and moving to a new country, with no expectation that I would ever return home again, might just qualify. So my experience of coming to America was the principal driving force behind the original idea of the novel, the reason why I had to tell it. Of course, as the book developed other themes emerged, particularly the question of how easy it is (or isn’t) to escape from your roots. Various characters in the novel are intent on leaving, but they all get pulled back in the end.

The story did shine a light on my own experiences, and those of my family. I come from a family of journey-makers. My mother was born and raised in New Zealand. In her early twenties she took a boat to England, met my father, and decided to stay. A few generations earlier, her great-grandparents had made the trip in the opposite direction, eloping from their English families who disapproved of their union, and hoping for freedom in the wilderness of the southern hemisphere. Writing Frederick and Jette’s story made me reconsider the journeys that my own family has made. In some ways, my experience of moving to America in 2003 could not have been much more different to my ancestors’ journey to New Zealand in 1864, or the Meisenheimers’ voyage to America in 1904. But certain essential elements had probably not changed much: the hope for a better life, the fear of the unknown, and the paradox of wanting to adapt to your new country without forgetting where you came from. (My mother has lived in England for more than fifty years now, but she still calls New Zealand home.) I have been thinking a lot recently about what “home” means. I’m still not sure what the answer is, but I feel as if I am more aware of both the country where I now live, and the one I left behind.

Did you know what you wanted the title of the book to be? How involved were in choosing the name of the book?

I thought I knew! While I was writing the book, its working title was Paradise, which was the original name of the town. However, it transpired I underestimated Missourians’ optimism, or delusion (depending on your point of view): there actually is a town called Paradise, Missouri. I then looked at various musical terms for the town, but again no luck – there is, for example, a Harmony, Missouri. I finally settled on Beatrice as a good name for the town, but it didn’t work for the book itself. My editor, Amy Einhorn, and I spent months thinking of possible titles. The quality of my ideas was inversely proportional to my increasing desperation – Amy rightly rejected them all. I was beginning to lose hope when one day Amy suggested A Good American – one of the characters that Frederick and Jette first meet in the States encourages them to be “good Americans”. It was one of those brilliant moments of genius that Amy is renowned for. It’s a perfect title, I think – challenging, intriguing, perhaps a little provocative. And, I hope, quite memorable. The moment she said it, I knew it was the one.

What’s next?

I’m hard at work on my next novel, which is a story set in Maine in the 1970s. I don’t want to say too much about it at this juncture, for fear of jinxing it. The characters are slowly emerging on to the page from the confused miasma of vague ideas in my brain, and I am enjoying getting to know them better. It’s a fun time.

About: Alex George is a writer and a lawyer. He was born in England, but presently lives in Columbia, Missouri. Worldwide rights for his novel, A GOOD AMERICAN, have been purchased by Amy Einhorn Books, an imprint of Penguin/Putnam. Publication is scheduled for February 2012. He is now hard at work on his new novel, provisionally entitled A HISTORY OF FLIGHT. Alex has two children, Hallam and Catherine. His hobbies include listening to obscure jazz albums, playing his saxophone, and cooking (and eating) complicated meals. He is proud to be President of the board of the Voluntary Action Center, a leading nonprofit organization in mid-Missouri.

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The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey – Book Review

Nicole — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 13:55:24 PST

In Eowyn Ivey’s The Snow Child, Jack and Mabel are a middle-aged married couple who have moved to Alaska in the 1920′s to attempt the successful farming of a homestead. The land is harsh and unforgiving, and though it is of their own choosing, the couple is isolated from family, and have made no friends in the tiny community. They are also increasingly adrift from each other as they struggle to reach a meaningful balance within their troubled and childless marriage. Mabel is still deeply grieving their stillborn infant, and Jack cannot make a go of the homestead unassisted, but tries to when Mabel insists the couple keep to themselves. In the gift of an unexpectedly playful evening, Jack and Mabel create a child in the snow, and are stunned when she seemingly comes to life.

Ivey quickly creates a winning storyline that mixes hard reality and fantasy in this captivating début. The descriptions of the wild Alaskan landscape with its heavy snows, bitter cold and stark beauty mirror elements of the couple’s daily life and relationships. Jack and Mabel are both sympathetic and complex characters and fine writing by Ivey puts the reader firmly in the middle of their marital despair. The pair develop, both together and separately, based on their experiences with Faina (whom they think of as their own daughter), the land and burgeoning relationships with their neighbors, George and Esther. Their lives are changed in surprising ways as they uncover more about the Faina’s mysterious identity, and try to come to terms with her human and supernatural underpinnings. In the end I wasn’t completely sure what was going on with Faina, which was a little distracting, but ultimately the charm and the strengths of this fairytale re-imagined won out over minor confusions and quibbles. Recommended.

Read More Reviews At: The Book Whisperer

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Literary Feasts – Running the Rift, by Naomi Benaron

Nicole — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 06:55:22 PST

Naomi Benaron’s Running the Rift takes place in Rwanda and a lot of the staple foods were unfamiliar to me, with the exception of a few vegetables. All of the food sounded delicious, and I took to the internet to look some of it up. Isombe is a stew made of cassava leaves, fresh vegetables, peanuts and peanut butter, and ugali seems closest to a grain like polenta or grits, albeit cooked and served in coarser texture.

The table was set up in the front room, covered wit the tablecloth resrved for holidays. There were plates of ugali and stews with bits of meat and fish to dip it in, bowls of isombe, green bananas and red beans, fried plaintains, boiled sweet potatoes and cassava. There were peas and haricots verts sauteed with tomatoes, bottles of Primus beer and Uncle Emmanuel’s home-brewed urwagwa. Angelique had not stopped cooking, bringing mam tea, wiping everyone’s eyes. The power was off. Candles flickered; lanterns tossed shadows at the wall. Jean-Patrick and Roger sat on the floor with Jacqueline, feeding Clemence bits of stew wrapped in sticky balls of ugali.

Ugali, pictured above, and below with beef and sauce. Photo source: Elimu Strive’s Blog & Wikimedia Commons.

Ugali is supposed to be an acquired taste for the American palate. Like I said, the closest equivalent I can think of would be grits, which can also be vey plain if not flavored with butter and salt, and eaten with (usually) eggs, bacon, sausage or fish. Shrimp and grits is also a favorite.

Here is a quick recipe that I found for ugali:

In a 2-quart saucepan:

Boil rapidly 1 quart water or chicken broth

Add 1 tsp. salt and 1 cup any fine white cereal.

Swirl the cereal into the boiling water and cook according to package directions to a thick heavy mush.

Keep warm over hot water (in a double boiler) until ready to serve.

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Running the Rift by Naomi Benaron – Book Review

Nicole — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 07:05:57 PST

The complexities and tragedies of Rwanda and the Tutsi-Hutu tensions are intricately and beautifully captured in Naomi Benaron’s emotionally stirring debut, Running the Rift. Jean Patrick Nkuba is a young Tutsi boy who loves his family, excelling at his studies and running with his brother. A school visit from an award-winning runner awakens Olympic dreams in Jean-Patrick, but his world begins to change in frightening ways after his father’s sudden death. Adding to his unease is the family’s move to live with his maternal uncle, which is hastened in the wake of frightening harassment, which raises the specter of past violence, which becomes all too common in Jean Patrick’s everyday life.

Running the Rift is an amazing book, carefully nuanced and paced in a way that perfectly examines the way the ordinary can coexist with unspeakable horror and violence. Benaron convey the joy, frailty and contradictions which are the handmaidens of human existence, no matter the cataclysms that life offers up. Jean Patrick has the potential to be an extremely frustrating character, endowed as he is with a preternatural innocence that allows him to believe unfailingly in his father’s dream of a united Rwanda, in spite of his brother’s wise insight, and what he sees around him. Instead he becomes a stand in for the reader’s own vain hopes that the history that has been so clearly written can be avoided.

The writing of the characters, land, food, culture, and the treatment of running, is gorgeous, honest and oddly enough, hopeful. Benaron peoples her book with fascinating and strong multi-faceted characters who are doing their best to live according to their beliefs, which is of course a big part of the tragedy. Tutsi and Hutus are neighbors and employees, teachers and students, lovers and family. The lines drawn and decisions made as they betray and save each other will both break your heart and restore your belief in humanity. Highly recommended.

Read More Reviews At: Devourer of Books - She is Too Fond of Books - Fizzy Thoughts

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The Woman In Black – Movie Trailer

Nicole — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 04:06:51 PST

Just about two years ago I read Susan Hill’s novella The Man In the Picture. I had some issues with the novella format, and though the story was creepy, I wanted more detail and resolution in the plot. The soon to be released The Woman In Black is based on a novella by Susan Hill and this trailer conveys all the creepiness that was promised in my reading of The Man In The Picture. In years past, I’m not sure I’ve been satisfied with the explanations of events offered in most horror movies I’ve seen, but I hope that this one won’t disappoint. The trailer is amazing in that it features all the scary images known to terrify me in childhood – clowns, old gothic looking houses, and scary looking dolls. This is definitely not a picture I plan to see alone!

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Man in the Picture, by Susan Hill – Book Review

Cinder (Lunar Chronicles #1) by Marissa Meyer – Book Review

Nicole — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 08:04:33 PST

Cinder by Marissa Meyer, is the story of a half-cyborg girl adopted by a businessman, but left in guardianship of his wife when he dies suddenly. Cinder lives with her stepmother, Adri, and stepsisters, Peony and Pearl, in the kingdom of New Beijing. Though she has a strong relationship with Peony, her place in the household is precarious due to the resentment filled relationship she shares with Adri and Pearl. Since her adoptive father left the family with debts, Cinder is tasked with providing an income for them through her work as a mechanic. She frequently goes without the comforts enjoyed by the others and the only brights spots in her life are visits from the handsome Prince Kai (who is looking to have his robot repaired) and her dreams of escape.

Cinder, as the name implies, is the clever marriage of the Cinderella fairytale and YA dystopian coming of age novel. This delightful read is imaginatively enhanced by being set in future Beijing, where vast regions of the planet are governed by councils, and interplanetary wars are commonplace threats to the inhabitants of Earth. While most elements of the Cinderella mythology are readily apparent, others are obscured by new subplots featuring plagues, royal intrigue, and intergalactic foes who can control human emotions by wielding powerful glamours. The Lunar Queen, Levana, is deliciously hateful and a powerful enemy to the relationship of our young would-be sweethearts. There are couple of easily guessed “revelations”, that are so poorly concealed that I wasn’t even sure whether Meyer intended them to be hidden, but those are easily overlooked when compared with a strong heroine, plenty of narrative tension and a doozy of a cliffhanger. Be warned…this is the first in a quartet. Recommended.

Read More Reviews At: Presenting Lenore - Rhapsody In Books - Book Hooked Blog - A Library Of My Own

Review Copy.

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Book Trailer: The Rook by Daniel O’Malley

Nicole — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 07:14:41 PST

I’m still a little hazy on what book trailers are supposed to accomplish and who they are for. I usually only watch them after I have read a book since I like to form my own opinions before entertaining any others. The trailer for Daniel O’Malley’s The Rook is not what I expected it to be at all. It conveys the humor of the novel, but none of the suspense or intrigue which made it such a captivating read. Though the trailer is very funny, with the irreverent receptionist fielding calls regarding supernatural sightings, I definitely wouldn’t have picked up The Rook if it was all I had to go on.

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The Demi-Monde Winter by Rod Rees – Book Review

Nicole — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 11:51:01 PST

Ella Thomas is a down on her luck eighteen-year-old – just days away from not being able to pay rent – when she auditions for a gig as a jazz singer. After completing of a rigorous interview process she finds out that she has been recruited by an arm of the military for an assignment that only she is qualified to perform. The president’s daughter has become trapped in an immersive computer simulation designed to acclimate soldiers to realistic combat scenarios. A glitch in the system has left the soldier’s (whom we don’t really care about) and the president’s daughter unable to wake from the deadly game. A backdoor in the system will allow, only, Ella to go in and attempt extracting them from the simulation.

I had a difficult time getting past the first few chapters of The Demi-Monde Winter. What I read seem plagued by improbable dialogue, and a few paragraphs of particularly ill-constructed Southern dialect almost did me in. But, I pushed through to read a bit more, and as I settled into the story I found a cleverly constructed alternate world and an engaging, if also largely flawed, read. The Demi-Monde world has been purposely constructed by American military leaders as home of the most vile and destructive political leaders in history (think of Holocaust architect Reinhard Heydrich joining forces or battling against those such as Aleister Crowley, Empress Wu, Toussaint L’Ouverture, et al) to create the most intense and warlike environment to train soldiers. It is the worst place imaginable for any human being to be trapped, and there is a fair amount of hostile language toward women and various races/ethnic groups. It is appropriate within the construct of the world Rees has created, but it also got very, very old.

Ella provides the framework for the action of the novel, however (unfortunately) she isn’t the main character, but one of a few others whose stories are told in detail. They are all mostly genre archetypes like, the spoiled brat who will probably eventually come into her own (Norma), the shady rogue who slowly discovers that he has a heart (Vanka), and the genteel girl who given the opportunity develops into a radical badass (TrixieBell). Naturally, as the story develops , the downfall is that not all of the characters and narrative arcs are plausible or even as compelling as the others. I enjoyed Ella and Vanka quite a bit (the most palatable of the personalities), and was happiest when the narrative followed them or when their stories overlapped with the others. Readers are challenged to process a lot of information – names of religions; various constructed regions of the Demi-Monde with their particular quirks, rulers and animosities; and the techno-babble of the mechanics computer simulation.

The Demi-Monde Winter is an ambitious undertaking with lots of moving parts, and an inventive storyline. It doesn’t always succeed in all that it seeks to accomplish, but it is entertaining in spots, and has a killer cliffhanger. It’s also the first in a quartet of “seasonal” books.

Review Copy.

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Out Of Twenty: Alex Gilvarry, Author of From The Memoirs of A Non-Enemy Combatant, Answers Six Questions

Nicole — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 07:45:06 PST

In this version of twenty questions, I send a list of questions to a willing ~~victim~~ author and they choose their own interview by choosing which questions, and how many questions, they want to answer! Right now I am thoroughly enjoying Alex Gilvarry’s funny (and you know I don’t say this lightly)and poignant debut From the Memoirs of a Non-Enemy Combatant. Here is what Alex had to say about reading, writing, and more specifically, writing in his underwear.

Would you give us a bit of introduction and let my readers know who you are, how you got started writing, and what kind of books you like to write?

I fell into writing through watching films. When I was a teenager I was seriously affected by Quentin Tarantino and Wong Kar-Wai, then Wes Anderson and P.T. Anderson. I wanted to be a writer/director of films, so I started out writing screenplays, but I could never finish one. I had a talent for novel ideas and not following through on them. When I got to college I realized how much organization making a film took, how many people one needed to do it, and so I discovered that all I really wanted to do was tell stories. I wrote a few short stories for workshops but it was the novel that I always had my eye on. The book I wrote and the books I hope to write are satirical works of the way we live now. My current novel is about living in the last decade—a decade of war—and its consequences. It’s a satirical look at the situation in Guantanamo Bay, a what-if, hard-luck story about a struggling fashion designer who gets swept up in post-9/11 paranoia.

I am often struck by the different ways writers respond to the proccess of writing a book. Linus’s Blanket refers to my use of reading and other activities as a means of escape and comfort, can you share with us any routines, food or recipes, or favorite books or rituals that help you thorough the writing process?

You know how they say you should never write in your underwear? [ Editor's Note - I have never heard of this. I wonder if it applies to blogging too?] Well, I write in my underwear. It’s the only job where you can show up to work in just your underwear, with the exception of exotic dancer. But in all seriousness, when I left my career in publishing—I was once an editor, too—it was very freeing for me that I could do this if I wanted to. So after a few hours of writing from home, wearing very little, I get dressed and go to a café to be around people, and write for a few more hours.

What are you reading now?

I’m reading Michael Hastings’ new book, The Operators, which grew out of his Rolling Stone article, “The Runaway General” about General Stanley McChrystal and changed the course of the war in Afghanistan. His book is like spending a long, drunken weekend with McChrystal and his entourage in Paris, but it’s also a history of the war correspondent’s role during wartime.

Are you able to read when you’re writing and if so what books inspire you when you’re working your own book(s)?

Absolutely. For this novel I read a lot of Graham Greene, Max Frisch, and Kazuo Ishiguro. Since I started writing this novel, my first, in my late twenties, I needed a crash course in structuring a novel. All of these gentlemen wowed me with their craft.

Did you know what you wanted the title of the book to be? How involved were in choosing the name of the book?

I had the title of my book as soon as I began. I always title in the first few pages of writing something new, because in my fiction, the title is an integral part of the story. In the case of From the Memoirs of a Non-Enemy Combatant, the story begins on the title page. Since my novel is the protagonist’s memoir, written from prison, the title is a declaration of his innocence, his own declaration.

As a published author, what’s been the biggest surprise about life after the publication of your first book?

They are currently translating my book into German and Portuguese. This has been the biggest surprise for me. When writing, you never think that someone will read you in another language. In German, I’m the author of a book called “Bekenntnisse eines friedfertigen Terroristen.” To me that is wild.

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