Category: Uncategorized
Your Blog Post Recommendation Thread
I’ve done a couple recommendation threads, both for books and blogs but this is my first blog post recommendation thread. Basically, it works like this: Have you read a good blog post lately? If yes, post a comment with a link to that post and a brief description saying why it’s a good post. It doesn’t even have to be about books.
The only rules?
1. No recommending your own posts.
2. Play nice with others.
See? It’s easy. Here’s my recommendation:
Blaming the “Victim” of Chronic Illness
This is a great post explaining how victim-blaming harms those of us in chronic pain. We’re constantly being told we need to exercise more, eat right, stop complaining, stop thinking about the pain that doesn’t leave us, try [x] obscure treatment, stop taking painkillers, etc. If you’ve ever wanted to get into the mindset of someone with chronic pain or have ever wondered why no one with chronic pain talks about it, this is the post for you.
Discussion: Your Favourite Type of eReader
I’ve never claimed to be a huge tech fan so it took me a long time to get an ereader for myself. And I’ve honestly never looked back since. It’s so much more convenient than reading on a computer and it stores a great deal of books for all those times when I’m stuck in waiting rooms or airports.
I asked my readers for ereader suggestions and they were overwhelmingly for Kindles. I had a modest budget (preferably under $150) so I got a Kindle Paperwhite. It’s nothing fancy, there’s no colour or anything but it works for my purposes: reading ebooks authors send me. Well, and adding the odd free book on Amazon to it. I love how the screen doesn’t look so much like a screen (it actually looks like the page of a book) and I can read on my Kindle for hours without straining my eyes. The battery doesn’t last as long as advertised because I use it a lot, but I was surprised at how long it actually does last. Overall I’d say I’m pretty happy with my little Kindle Paperwhite.
What I want to know now is this: Do you have an ereader? If so, what type? What are some things you like about it? Is there anything you don’t like about it? Let me know in the comments below!
Look What Just Arrived! (#15)
As I mentioned my local independent bookstore is closing, so I’ve been stocking up on books. They’re having a big sale so I decided to go to the city yesterday and snap some books up while there’s still a bit of selection. Here’s what I bought:
- The Demon King by Cinda Williams Chima
- The Serpent and the Pearl by Kate Quinn
- The Secret Eleanor by Cecelia Holland
- Red Riding Hood by Sarah Blakley-Cartwright
- Penelope’s Daughter by Laurel Corona
- Alchemy by Maureen Duffy
- The Crown by Nancy Bilyeau
- Mordred’s Curse by Ian McDowell
Out of all these awesome books I bought the other day, I think the one I’m most excited about is The Demon King. I’ve seen it and the other books in the Seven Realms series all around the blogosphere so I figured I’d pick it up. The premise is certainly intriguing and the excerpt I read sounded good, so why not?
Most of the other books I’m not very excited to read, but I’m looking forward to The Serpent and the Pearl as well as The Secret Eleanor. Both are historical fiction and although I’ve never read either author before the blurbs sounded good. I’ve read only one book about Eleanor of Aquitaine and that was a couple years ago, so it will be nice to get a little more detail about her life. And while I’ve read books about the Borgias, seeing their world through the eyes of an outsider will offer a little more perspective.
When I picked up Red Riding Hood I had no idea it was the companion novel to the movie. I’ve never even watched the movie, so we’ll see how things go. Mordred’s Curse sounds interesting because I’ve always felt there was a little more to Mordred’s story than we get in the traditional Arthurian legend. Penelope’s Daughter was a no-brainer for me because I do love Greek mythology and Xanthe is a character I’ve never really encountered before. Alchemy was more of an impulse buy because I thought it had the potential to be good and in all honesty I just bought The Crown because it featured a nun. That’s definitely not the traditional heroine of a story.
So, do you see anything you like? Have you read any of these books?
A Farewell to my Local Independent Bookstore
As you guys have probably guessed, I buy books. A lot of books. So many that the owner of the local bookstore and I are on a first name basis. She and her husband have been known to set aside books for me because they think I might enjoy them. They’re a sweet older couple and they run the only bookstore within a 100km radius.
Today I learned that they’re closing down in February. Apparently they’ve been living in survival mode for a long time. The bookstore barely makes enough money for them to survive on so they’re retiring. Their building had been sold and they can’t afford the rent the new owners are going to charge. From now until the time they close everything in the store is 30% off.
Why are these people not making money?
That’s a question I’ve pondered for hours today. I live in an area that’s booming for the first time in living memory. We’re a long way from the oil fields but people who work there like to keep their families here in our small community. The crime rate is pretty much 0, the school isn’t terrible and it’s quite a popular tourist attraction because of the lake. My village only has a population of 300 people if you count the surrounding farms but we live within an hour of two small cities so it’s not like we’re totally isolated. The place where I work has never been busier and houses are going up so fast my head is spinning. Remember the recession of ’08? Well, in 2008 we were doing so well we had a housing boom and are still short on labour to this day. So why shouldn’t the independent bookstore succeed? There are more than enough people here to support it.
The problem is the Walmart mentality. Walmart sells a few books cheaper than the independent bookstore could ever hope to so people flock there for their reading. Or they order online from Amazon and only go into the bookstore on a rare occasion. They don’t support their local businesses and now they’re crying when the local businesses disappear. I’ve always done my best to buy locally but I can’t support the whole area when almost everyone else is buying cheaper online stuff or going grocery shopping in the city.
So now, instead of buying my books only 60km away the nearest bookstore is more than 200km away. I’ll be relying more on books authors send me to be sure but I’ll also have to suck it up and order through Amazon. It’s a sad day for local business.
Discussion: Do Historical Inaccuracies in Fiction Bother You?
What I want to discuss here are not times when the author has deliberately manipulated history and provides justification for it (either within the story or as a note at the end). I do want to discuss when authors just plain get it wrong and if it bothers you.
The other day I was reading a novel that featured a little bit about ancient Egypt in it. It was going pretty well until I came across the place where the author started perpetuating the myth that the pyramids were places where pharaohs “would even bury servants alive in there” (Earthbound by Aprilynne Pike, Page 219). This is just totally wrong on two points. The first of which is that pharaohs were buried alongside their retainers. They were, but only until King Djet of the First Dynasty. (For a grand total of four kings.) Secondly, the first pyramid was built for King Netjerikhet (Djoser) and it was built in the Third Dynasty. Hundreds of years after the human sacrifice stopped!
After that I had a hard time getting back into the story. I can definitely understand manipulating the facts to get a better story. But what I can’t understand is stating something as fact and just getting it wrong. Not even a little bit wrong but totally, utterly and completely wrong. It bugs me because a) the author should have done even a little bit of research and b) her editor should have caught that mistake in the fact-checking process.
What I want to know now is this: Does it bug you when authors writing historical fiction just get something completely wrong? If so, does it colour your opinion of the rest of the novel?