Flashback – The Martian Chronicles

The first official day of fall is not until September 23rd so I find myself in a dilemma. Most of my “book reviews” have gone up under a Summer Reading heading. Now I’m curious if I should immediately switch to a General Reading sort of heading as soon as the 23rd hits or still categorize everything I’ve finished before Sept. 23rd as Summer Reading. Ah, the bothersome details of the life of a blogger. These are things you probably don’t even notice about the posts’ categories. Oh well. If you have any sort of feedback, feel free to share. For now I’m going to discuss another book I read a few years ago.

The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury

Let’s take a gander at that beautiful artwork, shall we?

1984 Grand Master Series Edition

If you click that picture it takes you to a pretty cool post showing the evolution of the cover art from its original publication date of 1950 until 2009. The 1984 version is pretty much my favourite. There’s also a graphic novel version of this collection.

Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles: The Authorized Adaptation by Dennis Calero

I only just discovered this version. I may look into it a bit further since I do love this collection so much. Earlier this summer I made a foray into the world of Graphic Novels (which made Pam pretty excited) and I have a bit more patience for them than I did before. I’m a fan of the sedate in my entertainment.

Anyway, now that I’ve given you about five billion pictures to look at let’s talk about the collection. Hmm, where to start? Okay, I’ll be honest I most assuredly did not want to read this book when it was first suggested to me. I even went so far as to read just the first short story and half of the second and claim I didn’t like it. Accordingly I gave it back to the friend who let me borrow it and attempted to distract her from her Bradbury conversion of my imagination. (Turns out my kryptonite was Dandelion Wine). Once I read DW I decided to give The Martian Chronicles another go. I’m so glad I did.

Here are the things I love the most about The Martian Chronicles in no particular order

1. It is unapologetically frank about human nature, specifically our tendency to destroy almost everything we come in contact with. Granted, I believe that the created universe is naturally in a state of decline with or without humanity’s intentional help. However, this book takes some of the lessons learned by great explorers of Earth’s history (Columbus, Vespucci, Marco Polo, etc) and provides quite literally an alien landscape that makes the “history lesson” palatable.

2. Sort of continuing on that theme Bradbury does not assume that the future propels humanity into either Brave New World extremism or conversely, the horror of 1984. He treats the future as though it will be pretty much typical of 1950s America. The man is 91 years old and I don’t know what fortune-telling witch he met as a child, but he is for the most part correct. (More so than say, Zemeckis. Regardless, I still expect a hoverboard in four years). In The Martian Chronicles he acts as though racial tension and Communism will still be the major threats of the everyday American’s reality.

3. Perhaps my favourite stand-alone short story of Bradbury’s belongs to this collection. It’s called “Night Meeting”. I wrote about it a little over a year ago here. I think it is my favourite because it deals with the fickle nature of time. Time is one of those things that completely fogs up my brain. I just don’t understand it in a broad sense. I understand how the day to day stuff works. But anything outside of my limited perception? No way, dude. It’s just too big a thing for me to really understand. Too many grey lines. Too many things humans just can’t quite figure out. I love what Bradbury did with this short story. It reminds us that even the vivid civilization right in front of us is a fleeting one in History’s scope.

I could go on and on forever about this collection. Chances are, if you know me in real life, or work with me, at some point I have gone off on some tangential Bradbury monologue and The Martian Chronicles featured heavily. For some more basic information you can read about the book here. I most definitely endorse this collection. Read it. You won’t regret it. I plan on using it to trick any possible future sons I have into loving to read.

On a related note one of Bradbury’s space themed short stories “The Long Rain” (which is actually in The Illustrated Man) is about an attempt to colonize Venus after the colonization of Mars. It’s pretty bleak. But again, fascinating. And reminded me a bit of the torrential rains we deal with here in Florida sometimes.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed by too much Bradbury, never fear. Tomorrow will be all about puppies. Maybe.

Cheers!

Summer Reading – Short Stories by Ben Loory

Stories for Nighttime and Some for the Day by Ben Loory

I found a review of this collection on Goodreads ; there were some vague references to Ray Bradbury and that was enough to pique (I always accidentally say this word as “pee-kew” instead of peak) my interest.

I became a fan of short stories about three years ago when I first came across Dandelion Wine and The Martian Chronicles. Discovering Bradbury’s collections are what spurred me on to attempt some writing of my own moreso than anyone else I’ve read. It was after reading “The Veldt”, “There Will Come Soft Rains”, “The Fog Horn”, and the list could go on forever I realized that being a “real writer” didn’t mean only churning out Dead Russian-sized perfect novels. It was liberating to experience a complete story encapsulated in such a small package.

It’s been a good year for short story cycles. First there was James Franco’s Palo Alto: Stories which I reviewed here. And then this collection jumped across my radar and I flipped.

Readers, meet Ben Loory. A man who has written a little bit of everything in almost every genre that counts. Mostly short stories from what I’ve seen so far. And it’s obvious that this dude was paying some sort of homage to Bradbury. Loory’s collection features angsty teenaged extra terrestrials, man’s search for meaning in an alienating environment as well as giving face to some of the things modern man fears the most: chaos.

I greatly enjoyed his short stories. One of my favourites was about a man who experiences a great adventure when he illegally gets his hands on a medieval sword. The rest of his life is spent pining after that experience and he loses his wife, his friends, and eventually his sanity.

Another that stood out greatly to me featured a skeptical man desperately trying to understand God. His story does not end happily either.

It’s a tragically sad collection. Only a few of the stories have what you could typically call a “happy ending”. Which might be why I enjoyed the collection so much. It’s nostalgic in a way that makes you wonder at the plausibility of nostalgia. The stories are rife with a realistic magic that’s not interested in making the main characters happy. It made me think of a child approaching the world with wide eyes, only to discover that the paint has faded, and what looked fabulous only seconds before has turned into some drab sideshow. You can read one of his stories called “Bigfoot” here.

I wholeheartedly endorse this book. Especially if you feel as though you don’t have time to read. A collection of short stories is a great way to get back into the swing of things. They’re sort of connected, usually by theme rather than characters, and broken down into bite-sized chunks perfect for a half hour’s rest.

Again I apologize about yesterday. Look forward to my unabashed celebration of Ray Bradbury’s career tomorrow.

Cheers!

Summer Reading – Water for Elephants

So the internet tells me that November 1st is the release date of Water for Elephants on DVD.

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

The things I learned from Sara Gruen -

1. It is possible to write in a man’s voice even though you’re a woman. At least she convinced me and since I’m a girl that might be easier than if I were a guy… but I don’t know. Jacob Jankowski has a wonderfully developed tone. I enjoyed it immensely. In the reverse it made me think of this scene from As Good As It Gets

2. NaNoWriMo is sort of a legit thing - National Novel Writing Month takes place every November. This blogger writes that at least part of Water for Elephants was written during NaNoWriMo though much research was done beforehand and the novel itself took a bit longer than just the month of November to reach completion. However, when investigating the claims that Gruen wrote it during NaNoWriMo she came across this list of works published after NaNoWriMo. Okay, I promise to stop typing that.It’s getting on my nerves, too.

3. Research is a really important thing. Most of the events of her story were taken from actual circus history. Which, let’s face it, is rife with bizarre, secretive stories. One of my major complaints with a popular teen lit series that shall remain nameless is that the research was limited to google and based upon very silly ideas. Gruen actually came down to the Ringling Museum here in Florida to discover more about her topic AND invested in a ton of books as well.

Now I’ve recently come to terms with the fact that I need to actually make effort in the arena of getting published. It’s possible National Novel Writing Month might be a bit of a kickstart for me. We shall see.

Happy Wednesday!

Summer Reading – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (movie)

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button by F. Scott Fitzgerald

This movie is almost three hours long. It was inspired by this quarter size, 52-page short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Creative License, for the win.

If you click on the book cover it takes you to a site where you can read the short story. It shouldn’t take you very long… I endorse it.

One Summer afternoon, worried that I would run out of interesting things to read and review and thus lose any sort of blog fodder I had developed I panicked and visited The Hillsborough County Public Library website and searched away until I ended up with about 80 books (or 9) that I’ve been lugging around for the better part of two months. I picked some doozies that I’m not very interested in but I thought might be impressive.

This one, well, I’m not really sure how I figured out it was a short story. I saw The Adjustment Bureau another short story turned movie and I think it caused me to research how many movies were based on a short story (or something like that). Anyway, I ended up with a tiny little book with an amazing cover and I read the whole thing in about 45 minutes total. (I fell asleep halfway through the first run; Pam proceeded to tease me about this fact).

I’d seen the movie first so the twist was unfortunately expected. But that is sort of the thing about Fitzgerald’s short stories; he didn’t seem too concerned with hiding twists. He is a blunt storyteller (I “flip-flop” in my opinion about his bluntness). Regardless the movie takes some great departures in telling the story and creates it’s own sort of beautiful story in the process. The short story is understandably limited to the time period that Fitzgerald knew; the movie moved to encompass a certain set of eras and a location that was important to the lead actor: New Orleans. (A brilliant stroke, might I add… the fact that it was set in New Orleans rather than up north – like the short story – I think added to the mystic part of the story).

Regardless, the elements of age, maturity, and worth are still very well explored in the short story. The book group questions at the end were quite illuminating and added a lot to my reading experience.

The whole thing makes me quite curious (no pun intended) though. The movie’s tag-line is “Life can only be understood backwards, it must be lived forward”. And in the short story the only time Benjamin seems really happy is in his “apparent” 30s-40s. What I’m curious about is the next decade I’ll experience. I keep coming across accounts that the 30s are the best time of your life (though most people I knew turning 30 freaked out about it). My twenties have not been spectacular thus far. It’s sort of an epidemic. tbt* ran a feature article last week about Generation Limbo: college educated part time employees. They put a positive spin on it claiming that more people in my generation who graduated after 2008 have taken up opportunities in the arts and volunteering which is better than full-time couch potatoeing. But it also means lifelong careers are not seen as the goal for my generation.

What I find particularly interesting is this: had I stuck to the plan I would have graduated in 2008. And who knows where I’d be now. I know that’s a useless train of thought, but that article definitely got me wondering. And this short story has me pondering. After all, that’s the mark of good fiction, right?

Summer Reading – Water for Elephants

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

First of all, I didn’t read the one with this cover. Because I think it’s a bit too distracting. I think my motivation for reading it is a bit obvious. Though I was too late to see the movie in theatre and per my last google search far too early to see it on DVD. However, there’s a reason that the circus idea appealed to me.

I went to the circus for the first time that I really remember when I was about 14 (the things that I’m fuzzy on recollection-wise get punted into this year for some reason). Camille and I went to the circus at the Ice Palace with some friends of the family that at the time had two small girls. Camille left with one of those collapsible light-saber type toys that had a tiger head on the handle. I’m sure I got something, but I have no idea what it was. I remember thinking it smelled sort of funny and I wasn’t terribly impressed. It could have been my brief sulky teenager phase. I don’t know. But there’s something about the circus, huh?

Dumbo as far as I can remember was one of my least favourite Disney movies. I just remember it being loud. (I was not a fan of cacophonous children’s programming. The best shows in my opinion were “Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood” and “Reading Rainbow“.) And I believe I don’t need to spend any time talking about how creepy clowns are to children. There have been whole sociological studies done about why they are so creepy (I read one once anyway, I’ll try to find a link). But there’s something about the circus, eh?

Another contributor to this twisted fascination with the circus has something to do with the fact that for most of my life I’ve lived between 5 and 30 minutes away from Gibsonton. Gibsonton is where all the Carnie workers retire. For realz.

For me it is difficult to separate what I perceive as themes in my life. All of these small facts I have shared with you bring me to this: beyond wanting to see the movie, I am certain I picked up this book so that I could begin to understand why everyone is so fascinated by the circus despite its innumerable infamous qualities (vagrants and animal cruelty and the like).

For the main character it was an intense physical attraction that morphed into a sort of protective love. (So, not the healthiest love story, but an upgrade from the love interest’s first husband). I kept thinking of Water for Elephants‘s similarities with The Notebook. It is told as a sort of present retrospective. The narrator suffers from dementia that makes it difficult for him to recognize the passing of time. He can’t quite remember what year it is or how old he is and argues that after 80 it doesn’t make much difference. He is rather entertaining in his own curmudgeon-y way. I loved reading his interactions with the other retirees and nurses in his assisted living facility.

As for the circus and the characters of the circus I loved the gritty authenticity portrayed by the author. It was outlandishly normal. The reality of traveling with many animals and people from place to place via railway as well as the cash flow problems faced by the owner were well spun and descriptive.

As for the plot I’m struck now by the sort of genius way it was presented. To use circus lingo you are presented with one plot-line that you assume is the center ring attraction. The sideshow plot-line seems a bit annoying as the action in the main ring develops. And then BAM! they up and switch on you. It’s quite exciting.

It reminded me a lot of Ray Bradbury’s circus themed short stories. As well as a short story in the 2010 Edition of The Best American Short Stories called “My Last Attempt To Explain To You What Happened With The Lion Tamer” by Brendan Mathews. You should check those out if you enjoy good short stories and are interested in the circus as a setting.

Wednesday I’ll talk some more about the actual elements of Gruen’s style that I learned from and appreciated. Tomorrow’s my first review of a standalone short story… so we’ll see how that goes.

Vivid Verbosity

Also titled Summer Reading – The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

  I first became conscious of The Book Thief‘s existence in the last Border’s near me. Jenna and I had made the trek to St. Pete in effort to find a Paperchase journal suitable for holding the next year of my life and Border’s was the only place to purvey these particular journals. Alas, we trekked in vain and found, much to my dismay, that whomever is in charge of graphic design for Paperchase’s journals is now heavily influenced by 12 year olds and neon color combinations.

  Anyway, Jenna said something about it supposedly being a good book. Then my friend The Scholastic Mind suggested it to me. I figured the fates were conspiring or something and added it to my Library Hold List. It joined the stack of books that went with me to vacation. Truth be told I actually finished The Book Thief back in Riverview (but it was Sunday night so it still counted as vacation). I looked at the first page on Amazon before I requested it at the library and was immediately hooked.

  Here’s the opening:

First the colors.
Then the humans.
That’s usually how I see things.
Or at least, how I try.

***HERE IS A SMALL FACT ***
You are going to die.

I am in all truthfulness attempting to be cheerful about this whole topic, though most people find themselves hindered in believing me, no matter my protestations. Please, trust me. I most definitely can be cheerful. I can be amiable. Agreeable. Affable. And that’s only the A’s. Just don’t ask me to be nice. Nice has nothing to do with me.

***Reaction to the ***
AFOREMENTIONED fact
Does this worry you?
I urge you–don’t be afraid.
I’m nothing if not fair.

-Markus Zusak, The Book Thief

  That is the first page of this novel. If you’re anything like me your immediate reaction was something like, “What?” So opens a novel narrated by Death sometimes known as The Grim Reaper. And he’s an odd one. But it’s fascinating. Death is an unconventional storyteller, he gives away the end before the story has really gotten started, he bases a lot of action in colors and feelings; he tells the story in the way he would want to hear it.

  And it is a hauntingly beautiful story. It’s about the things that make humans great, the capacity for love and caring, as well as the things that make men monsters. It’s a story of Holocaust Germany unlike any you’ve read or seen before because Death is unflinching in his narration. He has no side, he has no motive, he’s just tired.

  Zusak employed possibly the most striking narrator I’ve ever read. He also wove a believably human story about children who grew up in Nazi Germany and were only vaguely aware of the atrocities around them. But I think my favorite element was the illustration of the book that Max (a Jew hiding in the basement) makes Liesel for her collection. In the middle of the book there are several pages devoted entirely to the recreation of Max’s book, written and illustrated by Max. Yeah, definitely my favourite part. There was so much effort and detail in that section.

  Eventually I’ll talk more about what I learned from Mr. Zusak’s writing. But for now I think I’ll leave you with this tidbit of exciting information. I receive emails from Inkwood Books about upcoming readings and events. Last month there was a “Save the Date” section that informed me Markus Zusak would be speaking at Tampa Preparatory school October 13th at 7 pm. I plan on attending. I’m very excited. And if any of you want to join me, just let me know.

SIDENOTE: Yesterday the interwebs were telling me that it was Read a Book Day or something like that. I hope that you’ve had the opportunity to read a book. And if not make the time today.

Summer Reading – The Book Thief

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Today I owe you a review about The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. Unfortunately you’ll have to wait until a little later than 5 pm. It’s Labor Day today which means I will be working all day (everyone loves to visit the pool on long weekends).

But when I get home I promise to crank out a wonderfully verbose and vivid description of my experience reading this unique novel. I hope you can stand the wait. Now, I’m off to get breakfast and set up for work.

Have a solid holiday

-n.

Summer Reading – The Joy Luck Club

The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan

I have a funny story about attempting to readThe Joy Luck Club. I first read an excerpt from it in one of my writing classes when we were either talking about memoir or tone or something like that. I read about Waverly Jong, protege chess player and I was fascinated.

I determined I would read the whole thing as soon as the opportunity arose. Now, I’m sort of a lazy library user. I do everything online: I request whichever books I want, they send the books to the library of my choosing, and when I arrive they are all on one shelf with my name on a sticker on the binding. It’s wonderful. So I went on to Hillsborough County’s Public Library online and requested The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan or at least what I thought was TJLC with an academic forward by Harold Bloom. What I got was a collection of essays about TJLC and writing about being the children of immigrants. I was frustrated. And at that point the list of books I wanted to read had grown exponentially larger and I briefly contemplated just dropping it off the list. I’d seen about 10 minutes of the movie and thought that might be enough. But my conscience wouldn’t let it go… or some perverse need to finish arbitrary goals I set for myself just wouldn’t give up. Anyway, I reserved it again online and got the correct book the second time around. It joined the stack of books that travelled to the beach and I started it the Monday night at the beach.

The funny thing about reading while on my family vacation wasI felt everyone was super conscious of what I was reading. I only finished three books while I was there because I was still trying to make a dent in Anna Karenina. Nevertheless, Jeffrey teased me for waiting so long to read TJLC. I looked at the publication date and told him I was two years old when it came out so I’m surprised it took me this long, too.

I’m glad that I did give it the time, though. Every girl’s relationship with her mother is immensly complex. It was interesting to see this complexity played out between women who did not speak language the same way and who held different societal and cultural values. These complexities are true in non-immigrant families (that whole “generation gap” thing) but are sometimes more difficult to recognize. A lot of the time it’s written as the younger generation’s impatience with the older and the older generation’s dismissal of the younger. (Why can’t we all just get along?)

So four fairly modern women and three mothers tell the stories of their lives either growing up in China or in America. I found the mother’s stories a bit more fascinating because to me the daughters mostly seemed whiney to me. I love the idea that parents have stories they don’t share with their children that if they did would create all kinds of common ground. I think it’s tricky for parents and children to realize that they can have common ground with their adult children. And for the children who attempt to claim adulthood at 18 it can be difficult for us to know when we’re really ready for it.

I love reading about family relationships and how they change over the years. So this was a fascinating book to me. Especially the traditional Chinese elements that were involved in the story. All in all I enjoyed it and if you’re looking for something a little heavier than your regular summer fluff this one’s great. It’s also a great book for discussion since most copies include a book club section in the back and there is the movie.

Summer Reading – One Day

One Day by David Nicholls

So, it turns out I was already a bit of a fan of David Nicholls before I read this book, but I didn’t quite realize it. He wrote another coming-of-age sort of novel called Starter for 10 which was made into a movie with James MacAvoy (whom I had a brief but passionate crush on). So I saw that movie a few years ago. I’m not sure if I saw the trailer for One Day first or saw the book first… I can’t quite remember. But as soon as I knew the premise I was hooked on the idea. The characters meet on July 15th (in the late 80s, the year changes from the book to the movie), the last night of their college years. Each subsequent chapter is set on that day the next year. Twenty years of July 15th’s combine to make quite a unique way to tell a story. Especially since Nicholls wasn’t too bothered with contriving ways for Dexter and Emma (the main characters) to always spend time with each other on that day.

I read the novel the first day and a half we were at the beach. I finished it Sunday afternoon and I put me in a serious funk. The ending was so wonderfully tragic that I had one of those “I’ll never write anything this real and sad” moments. I moved on, but my, oh my did I love what this novel was able to make me feel. There were so many wonderful moments of prose. Nicholls has this singular way of describing moments in his novel that seem absurd but make absolute sense. He describes the younger Emma’s struggle with flirting like “having a conversation on roller skates, full of stops and starts”. I was completely wrapped up in the novel as I read it. When the dread of realizing that I was nearing the end began to grow in my stomach I was able to briefly distract myself with the fact that I had EIGHT other books with me at the beach. However, I can confidently say this was my favourite of the week.

I went to see the movie version yesterday. I’ve read a few reviews of it. One which lambasted Anne’s  affected Yorkshire accent. It’s from a British news source and the author of the article made at least one valid complaint: that this clearly British role went to an American actress seems a bit strange. However, Hathaway has made a career of transforming from a frumpy every-day girl to the chicest, glamourous princess (Princess Diaries, The Devil Wears Prada, etc.) and the argument that she isn’t believable as “frumpy” seemed a bit played out to me. A realistically frumpy person is not very likely to be a great actress, and no one really likes to look at frumpy people. So it’s a bit of a moot argument.

Since I’m American and think anything similar to crisp diction sounds vaguely English I wasn’t much bothered by her accent (though at times I did notice it was rather more guttural than other times). I was honestly more bothered by Jim Sturgess’ terrible wigs. The whole book to movie thing is always tricky. I fully understand. I was a little surprised by the fact that Nicholls worked on the screenplay as well (that’s not typical). I think they did an amazing job of showing you the years and making the time cues believable. Both in the book and movie Nicholls did a fantastic job of using era as a setting. At one time Emma even sports “The Rachel“.

I thoroughly enjoyed both the book and movie. The book was great. I want to own it (if someone wants to buy it for me, I’ll take it). Anyway, if you enjoy a good little romantic novel check this one out.

What I Learned from Cavenaugh Lee

Today I am a bit distracted. My best friend is here. We’ve eaten cupcakes and now I’m suffering a bit from a food baby. So many of my favourite things happened today. But I have to head to work soon so I’ll go ahead and crank this one out.

Save as Draft was a pleasant little rom-com novel. Writing style aside (it read a bit like my *fictional* 12 year old sister’s overly dramatic text messages) I learned a few things.

1 – You can write even when you’re amazingly busy. Apparently Ms. Lee started working on this novel whilst working at a law firm. She still pretty actively blogs (click on this, if for nothing else than to experience the title banner). Anyway, she managed to construct a novel and get it published while working a full time job. That is impressive. And I now have no excuse since I spend most of my days watching Mad Men and reading odd books.

2 – Novelty works. The presentation of this novel was key. It reminded me a lot of Something Borrowed (mostly because of the sort of people it was about) but the presentation of Save as Draft saved me from feeling as though I was reading something as banal as I was. Again it was that voyeuristic thrill of reading someone else’s emails and text messages that provides the novel with it’s unique flavour. Plus the cover of the novel, you know, it was a major selling point for me.

3 – Chick Lit is easy to write. This might seem a little mean but I feel like most chick lit these days needs these elements: a whiny lead character, two best friend sidekicks (one saucily crass the other basically a nonentity), over the top sexual details, and an odd relationship with parents. Lather, rinse, repeat. And you’ll have a best-seller on your hands. This story-line and the details were not earth shattering. Just pleasant.

So, these are the things I learned. If you missed it, yesterday I wrote a post over at www.kellenfreeman.net about Love Wins. Never fear, I may copy it over here in a few weeks. See you on the flip side.

Btw this movie comes out tonight at midnight and I’m very excited but I have to wait until tomorrow night to see it

One Day