Wonderful Wednesdays #7 (Favorite Authors)

Wonderful Wednesdays is a meme about spotlighting and recommending some of our most loved books, even if we haven't read them recently.  Each week will have a different genre or theme.  It started with Sam at Tiny Library, so go check her out.

This weeks theme is favorite authors (haha, I deleted the Canadian "u" in favourite).

It isn't hard to pick my favorite authors, because I have some that I will absolutely read everything from. as immediately as possible.

Jeanette Winterson
 I love how her words feel like poetry.  I love how she can put you right in the middle of a relationship without you realizing that she hasn't mentioned names or genders or details at all.  Her writing is sensual, lingering, and I revisit some of her books repeatedly.  My two favorites are Written on the Body and The Power Book.  I recently found two of her older books in a used book store, two I'd never read, and I snatched them up.  I'll review them soon.

 Catherynne Valente
 As if I'd never mentioned her before...  I like her for the same reasons that I like Jeanette Winterson, in fact Palimpsest made me think of Winterson repeatedly.  In addition to beautiful writing, though, Valente creates worlds like nobody else I've ever read, and I read a lot of science fiction and fantasy.

Margaret Atwood
While I love her dystopias more than her non-dystopian literary fiction, Atwood is always going to be someone I read and re-read.  I love her mixture of warning with humor and some of the craziest ideas I've read.  I still can't drive by fast food without thinking of chickie nobs and pigoons.

When I try to figure out what these have in common, they all have interesting worlds, well written words, and emotion I resonated with. Some honorable mentions would be David Mitchell, E. M. Forster, and Alex Ross. (Alex Ross writes about music, but in this way that makes you fall in love with it again... so it still fits!) 

Top Ten Tuesdays - Cover Art

This week's Top Ten Tuesday topic, hosted over at the Broke and the Bookish, asks do you judge a book by it's cover? Or title? Most of the time, a bad cover won't stop me from reading a book, but a good cover might drag me into something I would not have otherwise read.

The Magicians by Lev Grossman - I know I'm in the minority not liking this book, and I'm planning to read the sequel to give it another try, but part of my disgruntlement was that the cover was SO AMAZING and the book wasn't.

Something about the fog and the tree points to mystery and intrigue, and maybe silence.  Instead you get dumped into a boarding school with annoying teenagers, and very little discussion of the landscape.  Perhaps a picture of teen wizards would have been more appropriate?

The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt -  I love this cover. It is bold and eye catching just in the color choices, but then it starts to look like an illusion.

Do you see the men first, or the moon?  It always takes me a while to notice the guns pointed directly at me because I see the face first.  Still thinking this might win the Booker today, so this book is on my mind anyway.

Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor -  I read this because it was nominated for the 2010 Nebula Award, and the cover is stunning.

Look closer.  The desert... are those wings?Hmm, guess I'd want to read it to understand what the wings are for.  And seriously, you have no idea what you are in for in this book.  It was fantastic, unique, and kept my attention.

The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi -  Futuristic and elephants? Okay...

The Windup girl?  Is the elephant the windup girl?

I love this cover, and the book is great once you get to page 100.  I hope he writes a followup because the book does end somewhat unresolved.

The Geography of Bliss by Eric Weiner - This book had an intriguing title - the Geography of Bliss.  I have always enjoyed travel writing, and the concept of this book, to try to "figure out" why certain cultures are considered happy, was interesting enough to make me buy it for full price (I rarely do this!).

I wasn't disappointed.  Although now I want to go to Iceland more than ever.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies - I resisted this book.  I love Jane Austen and hate zombies.  Right?  .... Right?  And then I was trapped on a ship in the fog for three days and this was one of three readable books in the ship library, clearly readable was a broad definition.  But then... I laughed my entire way through.  It is supposed to be campy.  It succeeds.  And in the end, I liked the alternate reason for Elizabeth Bennett not wanting to marry - because she is a master zombie hunter, of course.

Memoirs Found in a Bathtub by Stanislaw Lem - This book was chosen for me by one of the hosts of the Sword and Laser podcast; we read it as one of the book club books.  The title is ultimately memorable, and also the key to the entire plot, if we can call it a plot.  This book is bizarre with an unreliable narrator, and also translated from the original Polish, about a world where history has gone missing.

A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again by David Foster Wallace - The boy on the cover is rather... charming, don't you think?  This is a book of essays and the title essay is something I think about every time I go on a cruise.

Also memorable by DFW is his book of essays called Consider the Lobster... I try very hard not to think about it when I eat lobster, but it is enough to stop me from ordering it most of the time.

My Life in Orange by Tim Guest - I read a handful of books one year about people who had been involved in utopian society attempts or cults, and a lot of it started when I saw this book on the shelf.

The bright color, the subtitle "Growing up with the Guru," it just made me very interested.  The book itself - fascinating and disturbing.

Mozart in the Jungle by Blair Tindall - I admit it.  I was pulled in by the clever title and naughty cover image.

This book was terrible.  A grad student telling the tale of sleeping her way up in the world of classical music in NYC, lots of drugs in there too, not very believable or interesting.

Wonderful Wednesdays #6 (Historical Fiction)

Wonderful Wednesdays is a meme about spotlighting and recommending some of our most loved books, even if we haven't read them recently.  Each week will have a different genre or theme, and originates over at Tiny Library.

This weeks theme is historical fiction.


Which stories set in the past do you really love?

I notice that Sam from Tiny Library hasn't asked that the historical fiction necessarily be accurate, and I'm relieved!  I went through a phase of novels that have a similar theme - a slightly feminist retelling of certain time periods, or if not feminist exactly, more of a focus on female life.

My favorite of these is The Thrall's Tale by Judith Lindbergh.  It tells the story of the Viking presence in Greenland through the story of three women.  The author spent ten years researching before she wrote the book, so you'd better believe there is some historical basis here.

Two books in a similar vein are The Red Tent by Anita Diamant, the story of the Biblical character of Dinah, and Ahab's Wife: Or, The Star-gazer by Sena Jeter Naslund, which is a historical-feeling novel based on the wife of the fictional character of Captain Ahab from Melville's Moby Dick.

Other than The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell, I can't even tell you of another piece of historical fiction that I have read recently.  It isn't really my thing, but I might just have a very narrow niche.

World's Longest Book Meme? 41-50

Questions 1-10
Questions 11-20
Questions 21-30
Questions 31-40 

41. The longest I’ve gone without reading.
To me, there is a big difference between reading because you have to and reading for fun.  From 1996-2001, I was in school.  From 1996-2000, I pretty much lived in a practice room or in rehearsal, and had a much more active social life than now.  I probably read during summer vacations, but that's it!  From 2000-2001 I was a newlywed and had moved to Indiana for graduate school, where I brilliantly decided to juggle three jobs while taking four classes at once.  Suffice to say I barely had time to do the readings for my classes!  While I was pursuing a culinary direction, I started to read for fun again, and by the time I went back to get a different graduate degree, it was too much a part of my identity to abandon it for school reading.  Short answer to this question - 5 years.

42. Name a book that you could/would not finish.
Oh, life's too short to read a bad book.  I give books 50 pages to draw me in, 100 if someone else has recommended it, and if I'm not into it, I abandon it.  Nancy Pearl says that's okay.  :P  One I can remember intentionally not finishing is Wetlands by Charlotte Roche.

43. What distracts you easily when you’re reading?
Work and sleep.  Ha!  I tend to read while doing other things, so I'll read a chapter and chat with a sister in Skype, read a chapter and put laundry in the dryer... this may be part of the answer to the question I get all of the time as to how I can read so much.

44. Favorite film adaptation of a novel?
Julie & Julia.  They made the Julie character much more likable than she actually is, and combining it with My Life in France was a brilliant turn.

45. Most disappointing film adaptation?
Most of them!  I remember being particularly frustrated with The Scarlet Letter.

46. The most money I’ve ever spent in the bookstore at one time?
For new books for myself and not gifts, probably $50.  That's what Powells.com requires to qualify for free shipping, after all. 

47. How often do you skim a book before reading it?
I'm more likely to read the first chapter than to skim.  See also my entry on speed-dating books.  I sometimes download the Kindle preview of books that I have on hold at the library, or to see if a book is up to the hype, and then will decide whether or not I want to read it.

48. What would cause you to stop reading a book half-way through?
By half-way I've probably already made a decision on it, unless it completely derails. 

49. Do you like to keep your books organized?
I do, but I have strange methods.  Right now I have two shelves upstairs made up of books I've collected fairly recently.  One side is books I've read, grouped by author.  The other side is my to-read shelf.  The top shelf is books for the Around the World challenge I'll be doing in 2012, and the other shelves are just books I've bought at used book stores or Amazon to read, eventually.  Downstairs the books are grouped by category - literature, spirituality, music, travel, software manuals, languages, science fiction/fantasy, and then I have to bookshelves of cookbooks in the kitchen. 

50. Do you prefer to keep books or give them away once you’ve read them?
It just depends.  Right now I'm hooked on paperbackswap.com, so I'm finding books to trade there!

World's Longest Book Meme? 31-40

Questions 1-10
Questions 11-20
Questions 21-30

31. How do you feel about giving bad/negative reviews?
I have strange moments of guilt about it, especially if I know the author is trying to make a name for his or herself.  I try to be distinguish between a book that just isn't my thing from a book that is truly bad.  If it is bad enough that I don't finish, I don't review it.  I delete it from my list and it disappears into the abyss.  After all, I'm not the reviewer on Requires Only That You Hate, but I do enjoy reading those reviews!

32. If you could read in a foreign language, which language would you chose?
German, since half of published music research is written in it.

33. Most intimidating book you’ve ever read?
Ulysses by James Joyce.

34. Most intimidating book you’re too nervous to begin?
Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace.  I picked it up and carried it around for a while the other day, and read the first few pages.  I'm just not ready!!

35. Favorite Poet?
Gulp, favorite?  Sara Teasdale?  Ted Roethke?  Mark Strand?  T. S. Eliot?  No idea.  I love poetry.

36. How many books do you usually have checked out of the library at any given time?
10 between my many libraries.

37. How often have you returned book to the library unread?
Often.  I'm always trying to get new books and 14 day check out periods with no renewals means that if I get busy, a book doesn't get read.  I had to return The Information without even cracking it open.

38. Favorite fictional character?
I always like the too-smart-for-their-own-good young women, like Anne of Green Gables, Meg from A Wrinkle in Time, or Harriet the Spy.

39. Favorite fictional villain?
The house in House of Leaves .  ;)

40. Books I’m most likely to bring on vacation?
Ever since the ill-fated vacation of oppressive fog, where the cruise ship was trapped in the port for three days, I always bring twice as many books as I think I can read.  I like to try to read books set where I'm traveling.  Sometimes I'll intentionally bring books that I don't mind if I just leave somewhere along the way - the plane, a bench, the hotel. 

World's Longest Book Meme? 21-30

I started a little memeage about books on Tuesday, and have been enjoying the opportunity to step back and think a little bit about reading.  While I'm still wading through my book pile, you can read my thoughts on reading.  Maybe they will inspire you to reflect on your own reading life! 

Questions 1-10
Questions 11-20

21. What will inspire you to recommend a book?
I always recommend books I love, but I've actually been trained for book recommending.  No, really.  When I was in library school, I knew I wanted to focus all my course work on preparing to apply for music librarian jobs, and also did a concentration in technology.  I had one elective and I spent it on taking a genre fiction for adults class.  My public library friends had a lot more training and experience in doing readers advisory, but the taste I got in that class was great fun.  I like figuring out what it is that a friend or student has liked about a particular book before suggesting other books.  "What did you like about it?" is the key!

22. Favorite genre?
Post-apocalypse and dystopia.  Side note - my spell check always suggests I change dystopia to utopia.  Hmm.

23. Genre you rarely read (but wish you did?)
How much time do you have?  I think my biggest area of reading envy has to do with genres I already read.  I feel like I'm never going to catch up on science fiction, post-modern literature, etc., etc.  I also admire people who regularly read history books.  Other than a few exceptional music history books (The Rest Is Noise by Alex Ross is so spectacular I have read it twice; and The Gesualdo Hex by Glenn Watkins was great fun), I just can't even force myself to try.

24. Favorite biography?
My Life by Bill Clinton is one of my favorites - the audio book is read by him and is really enjoyable.  However I think the foodie biographies are going to win it for me, hands down.  I couldn't not mention Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain, My Life in France by Julia Child, and Heat by Bill Buford.  I have a soft spot for people who made food their careers after I decided it wouldn't be mine!

25. Have you ever read a self-help book?
One book that I resisted reading for a while because I had dismissed it as a self-help book is The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey.  It changed how I worked, and I'll always be grateful to my boss at the time for recommending it.  I was just a graduate intern back then!  The next one I plan to read, along the same lines Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity.

26. Favorite cookbook?
Oh.  Oh my.  One thing you might not know about me is that I'm a hobby baker.  I couldn't live without Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan or Baking with Julia or The Bread Baker's Apprentice .  Still, the cookbook I use the most is Vegan Planet , and I swear by any recipe Robin Robertson writes.  She is a vegan who hasn't forgotten what food should taste like, and her recipes are friendly even for people who aren't vegetarian.

27. Most inspirational book you’ve read this year (fiction or non-fiction)?
It Gets Better: Coming Out, Overcoming Bullying, and Creating a Life Worth Livingby Dan Savage

28. Favorite reading snack?
Cheetos!  What a nightmare that would be, hmm?  I don't have a favorite snack for reading but I imagine if I did it would include chocolate.

29. Name a case in which hype ruined your reading experience.
Sometimes I won't read a book for a long time because of hype, and then feel like it is too common to like it.  In reality, I should be thrilled when good authors receive hype, because it means they will be more likely to write more.  It is my own hype that will most often ruin a reading experience, because I'll have high expectations and then be annoyed if a book doesn't meet them.

30. How often do you agree with critics about a book?
Ha.  Anyone who has followed my reviews for any length of time knows how often I will end up disagreeing with judges for awards, at least.  I wanted to personally chastise any critics who rated Freedom by Jonathan Franzen highly.  Cross-reference this American Chickens three-panel review of Freedom to see exactly how I felt!