Just One

A single resolution for 2006: 500 words per day, every day. This time next year that will gain me over 182,000 words. Surely something in there will be worth reading.

Loot

Behold!

Favorite Books of 2005

Magic for Beginners
I can't quite describe these stories in any meaningful way, can't put a label on them or compare them to anything else I've ever read, except to say that I adore them. I read an interview recently where Kelly Link said she would like to write a novel. Not that I will not welcome more short fiction from her with open arms, but I am practically salivating at the thought of a sustained narrative on one of her rollicking ideas.



Fevre Dream

My favorite George Martin book of 2005 was one he wrote nearly 25 years ago. There are so many stories that take two disparate ideas, settings or tropes and juxtapose them, some good (like Bill Willingham's Fables comic and some of Charles de Lint's work) and some not so much. Here we have vampires (a reliable horror/fantasy trope) on steamboats in the antebellum South. Great stuff.

The Last Kingdom
Bernard Cornwell + Saxons + major historical/epic figure = good book. Cornwell proved as much with his Arthur series. Here he takes on actual history, rather than inventing it, in Alfred the Great. Surprisingly little here about battles, which is unusual given Cornwell's exhaustive descriptions of battle in both his Sharpe, Starbuck and Arthur series.

DisneyWar
An oddly dispassionate but compelling look at Michael Eisner's descent from Disney's savior and innovator to megalomaniacal incompetence. I typically care very little for these blow-by-blow accounts of corporate history, but I could not put this down.


Ortho's Complete Guide to Roses
Much better than any of the other introductory books on roses--and I should know because I read damn near all of them this year. (How can you have a book on roses without color photographs?) Planting, care, fertilizing, choosing, breeding and landscaping with roses are all covered in concise detail.

The Queen's Man
Sharon Kay Penman's When Christ And His Saints Slept was a delight (if you can tolerate the constantly shifting points of view). In The Queen's Man, she continues to examine Eleanor and her progeny, but this time through the eyes of Justin de Quincy, a bishop's bastard. History and mystery all wrapped up together in a neat package.

15 Things About Me and Books

1. I cannot throw books away or otherwise mutilate them. I don't even like to write in my books. I must confess though that I hated memorizing Julius Caesar so much in high school that I used my copy as a coaster for two years.

2. I never break the spine on a paperback, and I will pick through hardcover editions in the bookstore until I find one with a pristine jacket. Along this same line, I was miffed when they changed the cover design of YBF&H this year because now it doesn't go with all of the others on the shelf.

3. I grew up in a library. My father still checks out eight books at a time from the library. My mother is the queen of series reading (mystery, romance, Harry Potter, Jan Karon, you name it). My father saved nearly every textbook he ever had. They crammed three seven-foot-tall bookcases with their books, including books stuffed behind the front rank on the shelf and then books stacked atop those. In addition to all of the fiction we had, my parents had also created a veritable reference library: the Durants' History of Civilization was there, a Time Life library of great museums, bible commentary, poetry, histories of Britain and France, histories of Kentucky, biographies of FDR, the Duke of Windsor and Bevery Sills all spring to mind.

4. I fight my own impatience to get through books. Time is so short tht I must hoard my reading allotment like a miser his coins. If a book can't sustain my attention and momentum, I'll put it down for something that will give a more immediate return on my investment of time. I realize that I am probably missing some good books this way, but at present I don't care.

5. I came late to sci-fi and fantasy and speculative work of all kinds--or rather, I returned to such books at age 21 after studiously avoiding genre literature in general because it wasn't "serious." I had loved Madeleine L'Engle as a child, and delighted in adventurous, pulpy fare, but knowing everything as a teenager I had put aside such things in favor of more serious reading (William Faulkner, Alice Munro, early Philip Roth, John Irving). Then I read Jonathan Lethem's As She Climbed Across the Table, followed, at a friend's nagging insistence, by The Eye of the World. That was it for me. I knew that I would have to write. But that's another list.

6. One night at dinner I was sharing with Lera some esoteric minutae I had read about the F/A-22 fighter in Air & Space magazine. She looked at me as if she had just found a long-missing piece from a jigsaw puzzle and said, "You really do read everything, don't you?" That is one of the nicest things anyone has ever said to me.

7. Books are not only a mental stimulant. The unique tactile qualities of books are rewarding as well. I love the way the covers on high-quality paperbacks feel, smooth but slightly rough at the same time. I am always taken with books that are heavier than they appear. There is a distinctive delight when a hardcover book will open flat and keep your page open without being touched.

8. I have a book problem. I am recovering. But I used to drop about $20 weekly on books, especially if there was something I needed to know (baby names, how to drywall, the First Crusade, the inverted yield curve). Now that I have found the Fairfax library, I simply borrow the books I need. But there is something missing from the experience, knowing that whether I love the book or don't have time to read it that I will have to return it to someone else's hands.

9. My family knows when a book I am reading is good, even before I do. I simply go away. I could be sitting right there in the room with them, but my mind is elsewhere, and I am oblivious to sensations that are not described in the book's pages.

10. Best book you've never read: My Name Is Asher Lev, Chaim Potok.

11. Second best book you've never read: The Love Hunter, Jon Hassler. Better than Staggerford.

12. Two books I didn't actually read in high school but got A's on the test anyway: The Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men. Nothing against Steinbeck, really. It just happened that way.

13. Things I read in high school and college but didn't appreciate fully: "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," Jonathan Edwards; King Lear; Catch-22.

14. Book on my shelf that has drawn the most raised eyebrows: Why Christianity Must Change or Die, John Shelby Spong.

15. Book I've owned the longest and never opened: The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke.

Disappointing Movies of 2005

Not all movies that came out in 2005, but I've got two kids. I have to see movies whenever I can get to them.

Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
Saying this is the best of the prequels is damning it with faint praise. Like being the leper with the most skin, things are still pretty bad. This has, however, the best soundtrack of the prequels, which is saying something because Episode I had some fine music.

Fantastic Four
Marvel's first family gets short shrift from an uninspired script. Julian McMahon was great at Dr. Doom, though. How can Marvel get two X-Men and two Spiderman movies so right but fail so miserably with Daredevil, Elektra and Fantastic Four?

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow
Enough said.

The Village
M. Night Shyamalan has James Patterson's problem. Eventually all readers know that the villain trying to foil Patterson's detective, Alex Cross, is whomever is working most closely with him (see Kiss the Girls and Along Came A Spider). Shyamalan has done his creepy O. Henry act on us, where he turns the entire story upside down at the very end, so often now that it really is losing its impact. I was actually disappointed that there weren't terrifying creatures who hated the color red lurking in the forest.

Surprising Movies of 2005, Part 4

Enigma

First, a confession: I would watch any movie with Kate Winslet (or Rachel Weisz, for that matter) just to hear her speak. That said, Enigma is a movie where the hero is a smart guy. That is very gratifying to me, a smart guy. No gun, no secret agent training. Just a smart guy who falls helplessly for a beautiful woman with her own agenda. Add in the well-orchestrated details about how ALL of Britain mobilized for World War II--and how the potentially meaningful contributions of women were utterly ignored or discounted because they were women--and you have an original and engaging story.

This movie came out in 2001, and I never would have known about it if not for Netflix. If you like movies, you owe it to yourself to check out Netflix. (End of advertisement.)

Surprising Movies of 2005, Part 3

Note that this is not "Good Movies of 2005" or even "New Movies of 2005." That said, on with the show.


Hero


First and foremost, this movie is a visual feast. From the dancelike fight sequences to the thematic emphasis on color, Hero is a beautiful movie.

It is also put together in an unusual (and potentially disasterous) way: flashbacks, each from a different point of view, often of the same event. The "frame" on which these flashbacks occur is a somewhat stilted bit of back-and-forth between Nameless (Jet Li) and the Soon-to-be-Emperor, but the variations in the recollections are interesting.

The emphasis on choices sustained my interest throughout. Will Nameless try to kill the Emperor? Will the others do it? Why do they choose to act as they do? Why do they face such hopeless odds? Compelling stuff.


The Interpreter

I don't like Sean Penn. I don't like Nicole Kidman. As you might imagine, I went to this one only reluctantly, but I did enjoy it. Penn and Kidman were both sympathetic characters, and though Penn's heartbreak over his wife's death often abutted the land of ham-handed melodrama, it never actually entered that hated realm. And there was a certain element of mystery here that I liked. Not the best movie of 2005, but a good show.

Surprising Movies of 2005, Part 2

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire


I have commented about my unexpected enthusiasm for this movie previously, but I was so taken with it that it bears repeating.

Lera and I were disappointed with HP and the Prisoner of Azkaban. In trying to pare back the sometimes plodding weight of the first two HP films, director Alfonso Cuaron went to excess, altering significant plot points to rush the story along. He also seemed to be trying to make these movies more hip, in the way that teen pseudodramas on Fox and the WB are hip. Lera was angry with his vision; I was disappointed.

Not so this time around. The director found a happy medium between the increasing bulk of J.K. Rowling's tales (they just get longer as she goes along) and satisfying the reader/moviegoer's desire to see on the screen the things she read in the book. This makes the film a good adaptation of the book. What makes the film a good movie in general is its pitch perfect understanding of relationships between teenagers. You remember fighting for no really good reason (aside from obstinacy) with friends at that age. You remember the girl you couldn't bring yourself to ask out. You remember how slighted you were when someone you cared about ignored you. You remember how alone you felt at times. Well, director Mike Newell and writer Steven Kloves remembered, and they got all of that into this movie.

Oh, yes. And there was the whole Voldemort thing, too. Ralph Fiennes was delightfully creepy, but in comparison Wormtail's comical appearance seemed quite out of place.

Surprising Movies of 2005, Part 1

Batman Begins


I went to this movie thinking that it would be a decent way to rest my brain on a Friday night. Besides, how good could it be? Tim Burton's Batman had Jack Nicholson in it. How could this one hope to top that?

But I was completely stunned by Batman Begins, the first superhero movie to confront some of the disturbing psychological aspects of the superhero, like the bent mentality that dressing up as a bat must require. Nor did the movie shy away from the often glossed-over impetus for Batman's crusade: rage. The movie also plays up Batman's best asset, his brain. This is not just an adventure; this is a mystery.

And I fell for it, hook, line and sinker. Christian Bale? Smoldering with rage. Liam Neeson? Would that we could see more bad guys from him. Gary Oldman? Come on, of course he was great. He's been Beethoven and Dracula. Jim Gordon was a piece of cake. Even Morgan Freeman's presence here (which struck me as cracking open a prized bottle of Woodford Reserve and pouring it into a Coke: that is, a waste) was welcome. And I could tolerate Katie Holmes here, too (although this movie came out before we knew she had been brainwashed by Tom Cruise and L. Ron Hubbard).

The movie went to great lengths to give you reasons to suspend your disbelief at a "Batman," or a completely mad psychiatrist, or a section of a city completely overrun with the criminally insane. In doing so, I felt like this superhero movie treated me like an adult, not an eleven-year old who came to see things blow up.

Books I didn't get to in 2005

I wanted to get these books read this year, but time, my children or the Fairfax library conspired against me.

Non-Fiction
1066: The Hidden History of the Bayeux Tapestry, Andrew Bridgeford
I have read almost every book with 1066 in the title (the best is the slim volume of that very name by David Howarth). Bridgeford purports to uncover a subversive alternate reading of the history presented in the tapestry, one that is not the monument to Norman triumph that others suggest.

Battle of Wits, Stephen Budiansky
I enjoyed Her Majesty's Spymaster, and so I am intrigued by his account of World War II codebreakers.

A History of the Vikings, Gwen Jones
This year I took my dose of Viking history from the venerable Oxford History series, but this one is next.

Sir Francis Drake: The Queen's Pirate, Harry Kelsey
Drake is fascinating on so many levels. Unlike two other vaunted heroes of British history, Wellington and Nelson, Drake was, until he proved useful to the crown, little more than a criminal. Add in his tempestuous relations with Elizabeth I, and there is a remarkable tale here that fiction writers would be hard pressed to invent.

Fiction
A Princess of Roumania, Paul Park
I've heard good things about this one, but I remain near the end of a seemingly interminable queue for it at the library.

The Emperor of Gondwanaland and Other Stories, Paul di Filippo
I have enjoyed di Filippo's work, mostly in F&SF, over the years. And, of course, any book with references to Gondwanaland in the title merits my attention.

Someplace To Be Flying, Charles de Lint
I confess that I have not had much exposure to de Lint, but the few of his short stories that I have read always come off well.

Sleeping With Schubert, Bonnie Marson
I'm not sure what to think of this, the story of an amusical urbanite who wakes one morning to discover that she can channel Schubert's pianism and composition abilities. For all I know this could be chick-lit trussed up with ghosts and classical-music accompaniment. But I want to find out.


Now reading: Cruel as the Grave, Queen of Scots, Magic for Beginners

Is it just me?

Or is this piece about George R. R. Martin in The New York Times insufferably smug?

Now playing: "Yesterdays," J.J. Johnson and Stan Getz at the Opera House
Now reading: Cruel as the Grave still. It's really not that long. I'd like to be done by now.

Go thee unto the Tribe of booksellers with smile and cheer, and thou shalt be rewarded with bestsellers

The New York Times had an article in Wednesday's paper about the publishing industry's hits and misses in 2005. From the article:

Little, Brown & Company got a fair amount of press when it paid $2 million for "The Historian," the first novel by Elizabeth Kostova, which retells the Dracula legend. In this case, the wager seems to have paid off. Booksellers lined up to have Ms. Kostova sign their advance copies at Book Expo America, the industry's annual summer convention, and BookScan has recorded sales of more than 485,000 copies...

Jamie Raab, the publisher of Warner Books, which like Little, Brown is part of the Time Warner Book Group, credits much of the success of both "Widow of the South" and "The Historian" to a series of dinners that the publishers arranged with booksellers around the country just as early copies of the books were being shipped to stores. Such early meetings between authors and bookstore representatives have become as important to a book's marketing as the traditional author tour and book signing after a book is released, Ms. Raab said.

I think there is something missing here. Consider 2005's other fat advance to a fiction author, $1 million to the secretive John Twelve Hawks. Sales of his book have not met the publisher's high expectations, but Random House went to great lengths to market the book, purposefully playing up Mr. Twelve Hawks' "off-the-grid" lifestyle. And you're telling me that the only reason that The Historian sold well and The Traveler didn't is because Ms. Kostova met with booksellers? Did anyone ever think that perhaps one book is good and the other one isn't? I honestly don't know; I've read neither book.

Now playing: "The Night We Called It A Day," Diana Krall from The Look Of Love
Now reading: Cruel as the Grave, Sharon Kay Penman

That was fast

Remember that story I wrote in one day last week? Well, it came back today. But in a way that's okay, because I know now what it needs, which is information that I did not possess last week. So all in all I've come out ahead. Not as far ahead as if they'd bought the story, but ahead is ahead.

Another double-edged trade

The Nationals have traded for Alfonso Soriano. Now don't get me wrong: Soriano is a proven talent with speed and power, the lack of which (power, that is) killed the Nationals' promising season last August. And I have nothing against trading solid Brad Wilkerson and the known-unknown of Termel Sledge for so obvious an improvement.

But the Nationals have a second baseman, a good one: Jose Vidro. He was injured last year, and lingering concerns over that no doubt influenced the urgency to acquire Soriano. Still, this smacks too much of GM Jim Bowden's tenure in Cincinnati, where his modus operandi was to acquire the best talent at all costs, regardless of what you gave up or whether you had room for it. Ruben Mateo, anyone? Jose Guillen (who the Reds signed and then had to trade because, then as now, they didn't have room in the outfield, and whom Bowden rehabilitated by picking him up for Washington last winter)? Paul Konerko (in a deal for Jeff Shaw in '98 even though the Reds had Sean Casey and Dmitri Young vying for first base and Aaron Boone waiting in the wings at third)?

The Nationals limited budget (and its uncertain future) has reined in Bowden's tendency toward such splashy moves in DC, but this deal for Soriano smells familiar. And not entirely pleasant.

70 days until pitchers and catchers report.

I wish I could remember where I saw this

At some point today in my cyber-wandering, I read this:

Kenny G is coming out with a Christmas album. Happy Birthday, Jesus: hope you like crap.

I don't know when I have laughed so hard.

Smart but bitter

The Reds have traded Sean Casey to the Pirates. This move makes perfect sense: the Reds drop $7 million from the payroll, get a solid left-handed starter and make room for all three of their younger outfielders (though Adam Dunn is now the first baseman) in the lineup.

But it sucks. Casey shows up every day, hits .300 and has the most consistent contact swing in a lineup of flailers. And he has that obsessive/compulsive thing with the batting gloves in between pitches. I will miss him.

The only way fans don't burn down the new stadium is, as John Fay points out in the Cincinnati Enquirer, if the new ownership puts that $7 million in savings toward an even more substantive improvement in the starting pitching. Yeah, I know: not bloody likely.

71 days until pitchers and catchers report.

Just wrong

No one should have to listen to Aaron Neville sing "The Christmas Song." No one.

Birds of Prey

ComicCritique.com has my review of Birds of Prey #88, which features links to my other BoP reviews as well. (Thanks, Louis.)


Now playing: "Speak Low," from Tony Bennett's Unplugged
Now reading: Cruel as the Grave, Sharon Kay Penman

Signs point to humiliating loss

The Magic 8 Ball takes a dim view of Louisville's Gator Bowl prospects. Yes, Virginia Tech lost Saturday to a tottering Florida State team. But I can't help but remember Lousiville's appalling showing against South Florida of all teams, and that fourth-quarter disaster against West Virginia. And they have to do it without Brian Brohm against the #1 defense in the country.

And I am faced with a Rose Bowl dilemma. I am sick to death of USC, but I can't stomach the thought of all those Longhorn fans with a national championship. Now if it was USC vs. A&M, I'd have no trouble cheering for USC. But this is going to have to be a choice between two evils (kind of like voting).

High and short

Does anyone have an example of high fantasy rendered as short fiction? I'm thinking something less than 10,000 words here. There are plenty of longer pieces by a great host of authors, but the only truly short, truly "high" fantasy I can think of are Ursula LeGuin's Earthsea shorts.

Of almost all genre fiction, high fantasy would seem to be one of the most difficult to bring off well in short form, largely because such works usually rely on enormous backstories to drive the action. That begs an obvious question, but that's another post for another time.

Exegesis

I lifted this from Teresa Nielsen Hayden, who got it from someone else. I don't know anything about T.A. Barron or the author's work, but this is darkly amusing.

Oh, and lest we forget,

NAVY 42, ARMY 23.

Tail-chasing

This post over at Jeff Vandermeer's blog is amusing even if, as he concedes, it is a bit pointless.

Now playing: Prokofiev, Romeo and Juliet, Chicago Symphony, Sir Georg Solti



Go Navy. Beat Army.

Must have too much time on my hands

Numenorean


To which race of Middle Earth do you belong?
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