What's What in the Sunday Salon: Almost Halfway...

What I'm reading

• in print / on screen

It's summer. It's the midpoint of the year(!). And I want to do some non-required reading with my eyes and not my ears. I'm not giving up on audiobooks, of course, but it's been feeling as if that's the only format I'm reading for fun. I'm getting antsy and mildly rebellious.

One reason I bought myself the iPad mini for my birthday is that it's a more comfortable size for reading, but I haven't really used it for that purpose much until this past week. I'm almost finished with Golden State by Michelle Richmond in iBooks, and I'm determined to work e-books back into my reading rotation. That said, I'm also making my way through an August debut novel in paper-ARC format--I've learned the hard way that e-galleys are a bad idea for me, because out of sight, out of mind.

• on audio

I started and finished Aisha Tyler's memoir/essay collection Self-Inflicted Wounds this past week, and am trying to get my thoughts about it collected and written up to post this week as a farewell to Audiobook Month.

I just got my new Audible credits and am in the market for some good nonfiction listens outside the realm of memoir--leave me your recs, if you have them!

What I'm writing

I'm not signing up for NaBloPoMo in July--in fact, right now I feel like I want to blog a little less in July--but I like quite a few of the prompts for this month's theme, "Decade," so I may be doing some writing on those. (I already have, in a way, actually.)

What caught my eye this week

Two perspectives on one debate:

"Thinking that every reader should feel the exact same way about books as you do and read books the exact same way as you is not only close-minded, but it is also pretty boring. Getting to see a book through someone else’s eyes who has a completely different perspective on it can maybe change your own views on it. Or even if it doesn’t, it can still be an interesting experience and maybe help reinforce the reasons why you do feel the way that you do."

--"New Guidelines for Readers" at Book Riot

"I suppose what it comes down to is this: if you've read novels in a bunch of different genres, and you still think Twilight is your favorite, be my guest. That's your opinion, and even if I don't share it, it's yours and you should own it. But if your reading repertoire is 99% Twilight, Divergent, Matched, etc. and you declare them to be the bastions of modern literature...yes, I find myself being a wee bit judgmental. Because how can you know something is a true favorite, if you've never really tried to pair it against anything else? (And no, the Bronte and Thoreau you were required to read in high school doesn't count.)"

--"A long reflection on the relative merits of Book Shaming" from The Well-Read Redhead

And really, is it that hard to read for 15 minutes a day? Do you need a little extra motivation? It's not too late to join "The Summer Reading Challenge for Adults" hosted at From Left to Write Book Club!

Gratuitous Photo of the Week

Still waiting...can someone please let me know when tomorrow gets here?

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(Audio)Book Talk: THE MARTIAN, by Andy Weir

The Martian: A Novel
Andy Weir (Facebook)
Audiobook read by R.C. Bray
Crown (February 2014), hardcover (ISBN 0804139024 / 9780804139021)
Fiction (science fiction/suspense), 384 pages
Source: Purchased audiobook (Podium Publishing, March 2013; Audible ASIN B00B5HO5XA)

The Martian is almost certainly one of those books that I wouldn't have noticed in my pre-book-blogging life, and given that my pre-book-blogging reading life didn’t include audiobooks, I absolutely wouldn’t have read it by ear even if I had become aware of its existence. I started seeing excited reviews of this novel on the blogs a few months ago, and although I only skimmed many of them–I went into this one without a clear idea of what the title actually meant–I made some mental notes about it; and when the audiobook won the 2014 Armchair Audies “Listeners’ Choice” Award, moving it up in my listening queue was an easy decision. (Can I just say, not for the first or last time, how much I appreciate what book blogging has done for my reading life?)

The Martian begins on Sol 6 (a “sol” is the length of day on Mars) with NASA astronaut Mark Watney’s first log entry after being left for dead on the Red Planet by the rest of the Ares 3 mission team. Mark understands that decision—the entire team could have died if they’d stayed behind—but he also understands that he’s not dead. Yet. Once he does the math–how much food he has, how long until the next Mars mission is scheduled–he sees that he’ll most likely get there eventually. However, Mark’s drive to survive, and the ingenuity he employs in applying his skills as an engineer and botanist to that goal, is a bit of a surprise to him. NASA’s eventual discovery that he’s still on Mars, and clearly not dead, is an even bigger surprise, and their necessary response to that discovery–finding a way to bring him home–will bring more surprises, some of which will be quite unwelcome.

To be honest, I had a few doubts in the early going that this novel was going to work for me, but just as Mark’s log entries were starting to feel a little tedious–they weren’t boring, but was the entire story going to be told this way?–author Andy Weir switched gears. The narrative expanded to include the Earth-based NASA team and Mark’s fellow crew members on the Hermes space station, and as these strands became braided more tightly together, the suspense built and I grew more invested, both intellectually and emotionally, in The Martian. Strangely and surprisingly, building out the cast of characters made the central one that much more interesting to me. I really grew to like Mark, and his log entries proved to be both genuine expressions of personality and engaging accounts of an inspired survival mission that took me on an emotional roller-coaster ride.

I’m not sure I would have found this one quite as affecting in print, but I absolutely understand that “Listener’s Choice” selection. The Martian was my first experience with narrator R.C. Bray, but I’m pretty sure that seeing his name in an audiobook’s credits will be a recommendation for me in the future. I really enjoyed his character-voice work, and his reading of the tightly-plotted final section had me nearly breathless. (I listen to audiobooks while driving, so this may not have been entirely safe.) When the book ended with the “Audible hopes you have enjoyed this program” message, my answer was an enthusiastic Yes.

Rating: Book, 3.75 of 5; Audio, 4 of 5

Other reviews, via the Book Blogs Search Engine

Book description, from the publisher’s website

Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars. 

Now, he’s sure he’ll be the first person to die there. 

After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded and completely alone with no way to even signal Earth that he’s alive—and even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone long before a rescue could arrive. 

Chances are, though, he won’t have time to starve to death. The damaged machinery, unforgiving environment, or plain-old “human error” are much more likely to kill him first. 

But Mark isn’t ready to give up yet. Drawing on his ingenuity, his engineering skills—and a relentless, dogged refusal to quit—he steadfastly confronts one seemingly insurmountable obstacle after the next. Will his resourcefulness be enough to overcome the impossible odds against him?

Opening lines:
"I’m pretty much fucked.

"That’s my considered opinion.
"Fucked.

"Six days into what should be the greatest two months of my life, and it’s turned into a nightmare.

"I don’t even know who will read this. I guess someone will find it eventually. Maybe a hundred years from now.

“For the record…I didn’t die on Sol 6. Certainly the rest of the crew thought I did, and I can’t blame them. Maybe there’ll be a day of national mourning for me, and my Wikipedia page will say, ‘Mark Watney is the only human being to have died on Mars.’”

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Ten Years Later: Celebrating Being Somewhere Else

The most recent prompt for BlogHer’s 10th-anniversary “Selfiebration” asks “Where were you 10 years ago?” My response also ties into my Wordless Wednesday group's theme for this week's link-up, "Melancholy." 

I did not like where I was ten years ago. I didn’t like who I was ten years ago. Reflecting on those times as I wrote this brought some of that misery back so clearly that I had to stop, and I wasn’t sure I’d come back and finish it. The fact that I did is, in itself, I think, evidence that I’m no longer where, or who, I was ten years ago.

Wait, that’s not entirely accurate. Geographically, I was in almost the same place then as I am now–about 12 miles southwest, actually, according to Google Maps–and I had the same job, in the same office. I’d recently, and intentionally, lost over twenty-five pounds, which solved a few of my problems, but didn’t make everything all better.

I’d moved halfway across the country two years earlier to get to where I was, and that hadn’t made everything all better either. Your baggage travels with you. I was forty years old, a divorced empty-nester, and living on my own for the first time in my adult life. (Well, technically, at that time, I was a single parent to my dog; my son was in college 2000 miles away and required much less in the way of “active parenting.”) It was lonely. Books and dogs are good company, but they’re just not enough all the time.

My life wasn’t what I’d expected, or wanted, and it stretched bleakly ahead whenever I though too much about it–so I tried not to. It had all changed so dramatically in just a few years, but I couldn’t envision it changing any more from the small, sad place it had become, and I couldn’t see myself finding the will to make it change.

Actions and decisions initiated by someone else may have brought me to where I was, but I was the one stuck there…until, eventually, that same someone provided the nudge that got me unstuck. When my ex-husband told me he was getting married again, I sunk a little lower and hurt a little more…and then I finally decided I was tired of sinking and hurting, and no one but me could make it stop.

The end of a long marriage truly is something to grieve, but eventually the living need to figure out how to keep living. I found my path out with cognitive behavioral therapy and a low dose of daily medication, and I remain grateful for both. They helped get me to the place where I found the people who have shaped this last decade; Life 2.0, for me–new love, new family, new sense of the future–began at forty-one.

And two years after that, my life as a blogger began. Last September, I defined “Three Reasons Why I Blog”: Creativity, Connection, and Confidence. Blogging didn’t really introduce me to any of them, but it helps me nurture them all, especially the last two:

• I believe in the authentic connections I’ve made with other readers and bloggers, and I don’t want to lose them; I can only hope those with whom I’ve connected feel the same way.
• And everything that blogging involves–the reading and learning that feed creativity of thought and expression, and which produce communication and connection–continues to help me grow as a person. It’s enriched my life in ways I couldn’t have foreseen a decade ago, and strengthens my sense of my self. Why would I not want that?

I don’t particularly like recalling where, and, who, I was ten years ago, to be honest…but looking back from here and now helps me see a little more clearly just how far I’ve come, and how I wouldn’t really be where, and who, I am now if I hadn’t gone through what I did then.

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(Audio)Book Talk: CALL THE MIDWIFE, by Jennifer Worth

Call the Midwife: A Memoir of Birth, Joy, and Hard Times
Jennifer Worth
Audiobook read by Nicola Barber
Penguin Books (2012), Trade Paperback (ISBN 1611749247 / 9781611749243)
Nonfiction: autobiography/memoir, 352 pages
Source: purchased audiobook (Highbridge Audio, 2012, ISBN 9781611749250, Audible ASIN B009899R76)

I don’t often buy audiobooks on a whim, but after I finished listening to The Cuckoo’s Calling I was craving more British narration, and when Call the Midwife popped up as a suggestion on Audible, I decided to take them up on it.

Written several decades after Jennifer Worth’s experiences as an in-home nurse/midwife in 1950s London, Call the Midwife felt like old-school memoir to me—that is, the kind of book produced by someone going about “writing their memoirs,” because they have all these great stories to tell. In fact, given that this is the first of three volumes, Worth literally did “write her memoirs,” and she does have plenty of stories. The book feels more like a collection of anecdotes than a structured narrative, and as such, it was easy for me to see why it became the source material for a very popular British TV series.

Worth’s experiences as a young midwife in the downtrodden East End of post-World War II London brought her into contact with many families—some large, some small, most poor—and a slew of colorful characters, whose lives she portrays sympathetically and vividly. She gives readers a real feel for the 1950s in the London docklands, a time and place that feel much further away than they really are, and what she says about mid-twentieth-century women’s healthcare offers new perspectives on some current debates. However, while Worth includes generous amounts of historical and social context, Call the Midwife is ultimately a personal story…and in that respect, I found it a little disappointing.
There are a few lengthy sections in which she narrates the personal histories of patients—stories from before she knew these women. While those stories are interesting on their own merits, they engaged me less than those of births that she attended and the families whose lives more directly affected hers, and I didn’t find enough of her own story here to satisfy me. I still have too many questions about the person who should have been at the center of this.

Perhaps those questions are addressed in the other two volumes of Worth’s memoirs—and if they’re also available on audiobook and read by Nicola Barber, I just might decide to find out. Listening to Barber’s voice work was an absolute delight, and I’d love to hear more of it. Call the Midwife was a fine audiobook experience, and an often fascinating glimpse of recent history.

Rating: Book, 3.5 of 5; Audio, 4 of 5

Another Take: Capricious Reader

Book description, from the publisher’s website:

At the age of twenty-two, Jennifer Worth leaves her comfortable home to move into a convent and become a midwife in post war London’s East End slums. The colorful characters she meets while delivering babies all over London—from the plucky, warm-hearted nuns with whom she lives to the woman with twenty-four children who can’t speak English to the prostitutes and dockers of the city’s seedier side—illuminate a fascinating time in history. Beautifully written and utterly moving, Call The Midwife will touch the hearts of anyone who is, and everyone who has, a mother.

From Chapter One:

"Why did I ever start this? I must have been mad! There were dozens of other things I could have been–a model, air hostess, or ship’s stewardess. The ideas run through my head, all glamorous, highly-paid jobs. Only an idiot would choose to be a nurse. And now a midwife…
“Two-thirty in the morning! I struggle, half asleep, into my uniform. Only three hours sleep after a seventeen-hour working day. Who would do such a job? It is bitterly cold and raining outside. Nonnatus House itself is cold enough, and the bicycle shed even colder. In the dark I wrench at a bicycle and crack my shin. Through blind force of habit, I fit my delivery bag on to the bicycle, and push it out into the deserted street.”

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What's What in the Sunday Salon: First Sunday of Summer

What I’m reading

• in print / on screen

To my own surprise–because it’s been a while–I’m on track with review deadlines for Shelf Awareness. I have one more July release to submit to them, and am trying to decide which of the August review candidates they’ve sent me to start first. And I think I may be able to double-team it with something completely discretionary—I haven’t decided what it will be yet, but I’ve added quite a few titles to iBooks since I last read an ebook, so I’m going to look there first.

• on audio

I’m on the verge of starting something new this week on audio as well…again, I haven’t decided what it will be yet, but having just purchasedThe Silkworm the same day I posted my review of The Cuckoo’s Calling, it may be that. I finished The Martian on Thursday, so I’m playing between-audiobooks podcast catchup at the moment.

Finished listening to #TheMartian on this morning's drive. Who else could barely breathe for the last 45 minutes of it? #AudiobookMonth
— Florinda PVasquez (@florinda_3rs) June 19, 2014

What I’m watching

We started Season 3 of Supernatural on Netflix this weekend, and are debating putting Orange is the New Black into the queue.

What I’m writing

BlogHer’s 10th-anniversary “Selfiebration” prompted me to write about online friends a couple of weeks ago, and asked me to talk about where I was 10 years ago this week. That post will go up on Wednesday…and it was not the most fun I’ve ever had writing anything, so consider yourself warned.

It was much more fun writing, and talking about, my feedback for the BEA Bloggers Conference planners, which I posted this past Tuesday.

What caught my eye this week

"The phrase “blogging for books” suggests that the work of bloggers is done in service of publishers in order to get more books. That is just not the case – and not the motivation – for all the successful bloggers that I personally know. 

“When many of us started blogging five or six or seven years ago, the idea of getting books to review wasn’t even a consideration. Bloggers weren’t on publisher’s radars until they started to see us as active, engaged, excited readers they could reach out to directly. At that point, the narrative shifted to this idea of ‘working with’ each other or that writing reviews was a ‘favor’ that bloggers could do for authors/publishers.”

—Kim’s ontinued discussion (read the comments, too!) of “Blogging for Books versus Blogging Because of Books” at Sophisticated Dorkiness

“Suddenly, in my late thirties, I was binge-watching a television show. I was pining over fictional characters – and I was writing my own stories for them when the official versions ran out. I was making costumes and going to conventions. I was lit up, inspired, excited as I hadn’t been by anything since childhood.”

—I was a little older when it happened to me, but “A Brief History of Fandom, Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Being a Fan” at The Mary Sue definitely rang some bells!

“When I went back to work, I read on my breaks and during lunch, and after the boys were down for the night. It became less of a hobby and more of a thing I did to remind myself that I was still my own person with my own interests outside of breast pumps and nap schedules- something I think is important for kids to see. How do you find time to read when you have kids? You make it, because it matters. I want my boys to recognize that mommy (and yes, I mean specifically mommy) is a fully-developed human whose life is not entirely composed of them.”

–And I was a good deal younger when this happened to me, but I wholeheartedly applauded Amanda Nelson’s “Have Babies, Keep Reading” rant at Book Riot.

Gratuitous Photo of the Week

First Day of Summer, 2013, Boston

Happy First Weekend of Summer!

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(Audio)Book Talk: THE CUCKOO'S CALLING, by Robert Galbraith (J.K. Rowling)

The Cuckoo’s Calling (A Cormoran Strike Novel)
Robert Galbraith (pseudonym of J.K. Rowling)
Audiobook read by Robert Glenister
Mulholland Books (2014), Paperback (ISBN 1478980826 / 9781478980827)
Fiction, 464 pages
Source: Purchased audiobook (Hachette Audio, May 2013, ISBN 9781611134933; Audible ASIN B00CTQ2ZS8)


True confession time: I doubt I would have paid any attention to The Cuckoo’s Calling if I hadn’t learned that “Robert Galbraith” was a pseudonym, and that this detective novel was a no-longer-secret side project for J.K. Rowling. I became interested in the story behind the story pretty quickly when that news broke. I didn’t get as interested in the story itself until some time later–and by the time I did get interested, I’d come across some good reviews of the audiobook, so I thought I’d read it that way.

The Cuckoo’s Calling is a detective/mystery novel, which means that unraveling the plot is more than half the fun–and since I don’t want to spoil your fun, I won’t say too much about it. The novel opens with a dead body in the street on a snowy winter night–did reknowned supermodel Lula Landry jump from her balcony, or was she pushed over? The police have said it’s a suicide, but the victim’s brother isn’t accepting that, and he’s making a pretty generous offer to down-and-out P.I. Cormoran Strike to launch an independent investigation. With only one other active client and no home but his back office, Strike can’t turn down this dubious case–or the assistance of his temporary secretary, Robin Ellacott.

The novel felt like it was a little longer than it strictly needed to be, but I didn’t guess the final twist too far in advance of the revelation, and I appreciated that–it’s never satisfying to solve a mystery too soon. I appreciated even more that the novel didn’t skimp on character development, particularly that of the detective and his assistant–I really enjoyed getting to know them both.

I’m not sure I would have liked this one quite so much in print, but I really enjoyed actor Robert Glenister’s reading of The Cuckoo’s Calling in audiobook, especially his character voices. If I stick with the Strike series–and he continues as its audio narrator–I’m pretty certain this will continue to be my preferred reading format.

It seemed to me that J.K. Rowling probably have had a lot of fun writing this…especially given that at the time, almost no one was aware that she was writing it, so she must have had an unexpected amount of freedom. That freedom is not likely to accompany the writing of future Cormoran Strike novels–the second in the series, The Silkworm, is out this month–but I hope that won’t hold her back. Rowling’s already responsible for one genuine worldwide phenomenon; we don’t need another Harry Potter, and I think this establishes that she doesn’t need one either. (That said, am I the only one who envisioned Strike, based on the character’s physical description, as a somewhat more refined Hagrid?)

Rating: Book, 3.5 of 5; Audio, 3.75 of 5

Other opinions, via the Book Blogs Search Engine

Book description, from the publisher’s website

After losing his leg to a land mine in Afghanistan, Cormoran Strike is barely scraping by as a private investigator. Strike is down to one client, and creditors are calling. He has also just broken up with his longtime girlfriend and is living in his office. 

Then John Bristow walks through his door with an amazing story: His sister, the legendary supermodel Lula Landry, known to her friends as the Cuckoo, famously fell to her death a few months earlier. The police ruled it a suicide, but John refuses to believe that. The case plunges Strike into the world of multimillionaire beauties, rock-star boyfriends, and desperate designers, and it introduces him to every variety of pleasure, enticement, seduction, and delusion known to man. 

You may think you know detectives, but you’ve never met one quite like Strike. You may think you know about the wealthy and famous, but you’ve never seen them under an investigation like this. 

Introducing Cormoran Strike, this is the acclaimed first crime novel by J.K. Rowling, writing under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith.

Opening lines:

“The buzz in the street was like the humming of flies. Photographers stood massed behind barriers patrolled by police, their long-snouted cameras poised, their breath rising like steam. Snow fell steadily on to hats and shoulders; gloved fingers wiped lenses clear. From time to time there came outbreaks of desultory clicking, as the watchers filled the waiting time by snapping the white canvas tent in the middle of the road, the entrance to the tall red-brick apartment block behind it, and the balcony on the top floor from which the body had fallen.”

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Wordless Wednesday: "Flower"

Playing with layers and exposures in the Union app for the iPad, using two different flower photos

An InLinkz Link-up

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Because They Asked: My Thoughts on "BEA Bloggers"

This post was adapted from an e-mail I sent to the planners of the BEA Bloggers Conference in response to their request for feedback on the 2014 event and considerations in planning for 2015. I wanted to share it here so we could talk about what you think, too.

Another place you can share what you think about book-blogger gatherings--and help to plan one!--is the Facebook group Book Blog UnCon 2015, which was recently formed to work on producing such an event for next year. The group is an open one--if you're a book blogger on Facebook who's interested in being part of this, you're welcome to join us there.

I was pleased that there were two tiers of programming at the BEA Bloggers Conference this year, serving beginners and more advanced bloggers. As a seven-year blogging veteran, I didn't go to any of the 101-level sessions, but I've heard good things about a couple of them (and pretty bad things about "The Publishing Process: How Bloggers Have Changed the Game," which by many accounts greatly missed the mark.) I did not hear such favorable opinions about some of the 201-level sessions, unfortunately. It may be that it's harder to develop programming suited to more advanced bloggers, but I'm not sure that's really the problem.

I attended a couple of sessions that looked good on paper, but weren't executed well. The Design 201 session was essentially two side-by-side presentations by designers, with one presenter trying to recruit users to his own social-media/blogging platform (BookLikes), and with neither presenter truly offering "advanced" design advice. The "Blogging and the Law" panel offered some interesting information about plagiarism and copyright protection, but didn't address legal concerns specific to book bloggers.

The session that I moderated, "Technology 201: Ad Networks," seemed to be fairly well-received, and I think the content and presentation were appropriate to its target audience. The panel was balanced, and we structured it as a discussion/Q&A with no formal presentations, which I think may have been more engaging for the audience. I know--because I was told directly--that people appreciated not getting sales pitches from the two vendors who were on the panel.

I feel that one issue with BEA Bloggers as a whole is that it's not entirely clear on who the "bloggers" are. As keynoter Maureen Johnson noted in response to an audience question, a "book blog" and an "author blog" are different things. Because of BEA Bloggers' beginnings in the grass-roots Book Blogger Convention (2010-2011), book bloggers look to this event to be our conference, and while my impression is that most of the Bloggers Conference attendees still identify as book bloggers--we read and blog about books written by others--some are authors who blog primarily about their own books, and others are publishing-industry insiders who blog about various aspects of the business.

Book bloggers, author bloggers, and industry bloggers may not want the same things from BEA Bloggers, and I realize that BEA Bloggers may not be in a position to diversify its content to address the needs of all groups, particularly if it also wants to offer programming to address differing experience levels among bloggers. With that said, I do have some thoughts about where the conference can go from here to serve the interests of book bloggers, based on conversations with my peers.

• When I talk about the Bloggers Conference with other book bloggers, one point that comes up repeatedly is that we want this to be an opportunity to interact with and learn from each other. We would like more book bloggers on panels in general, and especially as moderators. We'd also like sessions structured as workshops, and/or allowing for small-group discussions, mixed in with more traditional panels and presentations. The more experienced bloggers I've talked with are especially interested in this.

• All sessions, regardless of how they're structured, could be better if the panelists have more time to prepare. Barring emergencies, I think panel members should be invited and confirmed no less than a month before the conference. (Personally, I was invited to moderate my session barely two weeks before BEA. I live on the West Coast, and if I hadn't already been registered and made my travel plans, I couldn't have accepted the invitation with so little lead time.) The planning team might also consider offering more guidance and direction in structuring sessions, particularly to panelists without much conference and/or speaking experience.

• I think it's vitally important for the Bloggers Conference to have bloggers involved in an Advisory Board capacity and applaud that it's put such a group in place, but I wonder if it may be time to make some changes to its membership. 

(UPDATED 6/18/2014): A current member of the Advisory Committee commented on the link to this post on Facebook, stating that she is stepping down this year because of some of the issues mentioned in this post. Her impression is that BEA doesn't take the conference seriously enough to devote the time, staff, and funding resources necessary to build it into something valuable. This is sad, but honestly not surprising.

I recognize that as part of Book Expo America, the Bloggers Conference needs to address publishing-industry interests as well as those of bloggers. While those interests often align, there are also differences to consider. BEA Bloggers seems to be giving more weight to bloggers' interests each year, but there's still room to do more...if it wants to.

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What's What in the Sunday Salon--June 15, 2014

I'm not sure I have many regular readers here who are dads, but if that's you, Happy Father's Day--and if you have a dad, do something nice for him today.

What I’m reading

• in print / on screen

I’ve just finished one July release, Christopher Beha’s second novel Arts & Entertainments, and am submitting my review to Shelf Awarenessthis weekend, after which I’ll retjoin another ARC from the same source, Yannick Murphy’s paperback original This Is the Water, in progress. I really need to do a better job of checking publication dates when I’m deciding the oder in which to read the ARCs I get from them, since it actually does matter when those reviews run.

• on audio

I’m just past halfway through The Martian and quite enjoying both the story and the narration so far.

What I’m watching

The TV was pretty quiet this week, thanks to various other activities, and the DVR recordings still aren’t stacking up. We’re almost done with Season 2 of Supernatural on Netfilx, and it’s still going to take a while to catch up with that show (currently on season 96 or something).

What I’m writing

I’m current on book reviews for the moment, so I was able to post some thoughts on the “reality” of online friendships for BlogHer’s“Selfiebration” project a few days ago. I also wrote a lengthy email to the organizers of the BEA Bloggers Conference in response to a request for feedback that they sent me, and I’ll be posting a version of that here as an “open letter” on Tuesday–I’m hoping for some good discussion on that one!

What caught my eye this week

If you’re a Feedly subscriber, it was a tough week to keep up with your blog reading–the service was taken down by hackers three days in a row. They seem to have recovered as of this weekend, but I would recommend setting up an account with another feed service as a backup in case they get hit again; I signed up with Feedbin on Friday. Like Feedly, it works with my favorite mobile feed-reader apps., Mr. Reader (iPad only)and Unread (iPhone and iPad), which was one of my top requirements.

(Speaking of mobile feed readers, I was involved in a Twiiter conversation about their effect on blog comments this past week–you can see the highlights here on Storify. Do you agree that they’ve contributed to decreased commenting activity?)

The Feedly outage led to more conversations and fewer links shared on Twitter this week, so let's play a little catch-up:

• “Within that description, however, lies a multitude of experiences — a hall of mirrors in which my version of Twitter is nothing like your version, and nothing like that of the person sitting next to you on the train or the airplane, or at the basketball game.”—Speaking of Twitter, some observations about its ongoing, years-long identity crisis 

• “But what’s wrong with reading for fun? Especially at a time when publishers are laying off staffers and bookstores are closing, why condemn others for what they choose to read? When you deem certain types of culture acceptable and unacceptable, people deeply internalize these ideas and do, in fact, feel ashamed about what they read or listen to or watch, whether it’s chick lit or YA or whatever the genre du jour to malign is.”—Rachel Kramer Bussel declares “We Will Not Be Reader-Shamed” 

• “According to The Publishing Industry, it’s not enough for readers to just read books anymore. The point of it all is to take readers, convert them to fans, then push them to become evangelists for a book or author. Real readers have to become evangelicals for books because evangelism is, apparently, the only way to drive sales.”—Kim asks “Why Isn’t Just Reading Enough Anymore?” 

• “I wonder how I would have felt about this book had there not been a blazing publicity campaign, and if I had not felt manipulated into reading. Would I have been more forgiving about its thin characterizations, its one-sided plot, its glib sleights of hand? Would I have received the book as I receive most books—as the best a well-meaning author could do?”—Beth Kephart questions the effects of the hype machine

Gratuitous Photo of the Week

I built this from the contents of a fortune cookie and my own photo of a sunset with the Union photo app on the iPad. Instagram liked it.

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"Si, sono vero." Yes, They're Real (Friends)

Jenna Hatfield’s post for BlogHer’s 10th-anniversary #Selfiebration, “Don’t tell me they’re not real,” couldn’t have popped up in my feed reader at a more perfect time. It's been a few days now since someone described a blogger get-together during BEA week as “the Twitter avatars come to life,” and the relationships in my life that were born online have been on my mind.

As a socially-awkward sort with somewhat oddball interests and no talent for small talk—I’m fine once we know each other, but initial encounters are difficult—I might be overstating it to call the the social benefits of online life “lifesavers,” but they’ve certainly been life-enhancers for me. And I’m lucky to have someone in my daily, face-to-face life who truly gets that; my husband and I met online.

I’ve had countless online conversations as a blogger, Tweeter, and Facebooker since I started hanging out here regularly over seven years ago. People have left the conversation along the way, new ones have entered it, and we’ve talked about all sorts of things together. Some of those conversations were relatively brief, but nonetheless memorable; some of them have lasted for years. Some have been light, some have been silly, some have been revealing, some have been tough. And of course, they don’t all make the transition to stronger connection and the deeper bonds of friendship…but some of them did, and continue to do so, and I am grateful for that every day.

Many of these conversations may never take place outside the ether of the Internet, where we’re not bounded by geography. That doesn’t make them less significant than those that take place over the phone or face to face, or mean that the connections forged through them are any less genuine. You may have people in your daily, face-to-face life who can’t grasp the truth of that…and without experiencing it themselves, they may never get it. That doesn’t mean they get to take that truth away from you.

Having said all that, sometimes those conversations and connections do get the chance to happen in the same physical space, in the so-called real world–and even though we considered these friendships fully real before we met one another in the same room, they’re undeniably and permanently enriched when we’re finally able to share a meal, or attend an event together, or talk to each other in our speaking voices rather than our written ones.

1. 
   

   Florinda PVasquez@florinda_3rs

    @myfriendamy @BethFishReads And how! But the joy of seeing your blogging friends IRL never changes :-).

   4 DAYS AGO
   
2. 
   

   Florinda PVasquez@florinda_3rs

    MT @RebeccaSchinsky, summing up the week: "The book (and blog!) people are always the best part." #BEA14

   6 DAYS AGO
   
3. 
   

   Florinda PVasquez@florinda_3rs

    .@tiftalksbooks Meeting your blogging friends & hanging out with them IRL is the Best.Thing.Ever. @ArmchairBEA

   6 DAYS AGO

I will be going to the tenth annual BlogHer Conference next month, and though I’m primarily going for the agenda, I’m more understanding now of those who primarily go for the parties than I was the last time I attended…sort of. I’ll never be someone who goes to conferences “for the parties”–that’s not this introverted bookworm’s personality. But I have become someone who goes to conferences because they’re an opportunity to spend time with my friends—to continue and expand on the conversations we have through our blogs and Facebook and Twitter feeds, and to have new experiences, together, that will add to the content and subtext of those conversations.

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WW: Reader, I Married Their Father

October 21, 2006. We were all so much younger then...(and is it me, or do the kids look a little bit unnerved at the prospect?)

An InLinkz Link-up

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Book Talk: MIDSUMMER, by Carole Giangrande

Midsummer
Carole Giangrande (Facebook) (Twitter) (Goodreads)
Inanna Poetry and Fiction Series (2014), Paperback (ISBN 1771331380 / 9781771331388)
Fiction (novella), 150 pages
Source: Publisher, via TLC Book Tours

I don’t often read novellas. I’m not sure many people do, actually–they’re such an odd specialized form of fiction, and I suspect that probably makes it a challenge to get them published. I like that they’re more developed than short stories without requiring the time commitment of full-length fiction, but those same attributes can make them a less than fully satisfying reading experience.

Carole Giangrande’s Midsummer, a novella with autobiographical elements, appealed to two of my fiction sweet spots: it has a New York City setting, and involves an Italian-American family, both of which are “autobiographical elements” for me as well. The second factor particularly resonated because of my personal language-learning project (currently on a brief hiatus, but soon to be revived) in preparation for an eventual trip to Italy. Neither of those elements disappointed, and I was gratified to discover that most of them time, I was mentally translating Italian phrases correctly.

The writing in Midsummer is lovely, often evocative and poetic, but the story feels underdeveloped. This may be a inherent limitation of the novella form. While I think Giangrande has largely succeeded at working within that structure, I’m curious about how this might have turned out in the “novel in stories” form instead; I don’t really see a conventional novel here, but the linked-short-story setup seems like it could have produced a more substantial read. The author introduces some intriguing threads that can’t really be fully explored here, and I’d like to have had the chance to know her characters better than the constraints of Midsummer allowed.

While I appreciate the author’s desire to work in this less-common form of fiction–and, again, I think she did well with it overall—for me,Midsummer will end up being filed under “less than fully satisfying reading experiences.”

Rating: 3 of 5

Other stops on this TLC Book Tour

Books Speak Volumes

Shall Write

 Must Read Faster

Dwell in Possibility

Savvy Verse & Wit

Bibliotica

West Metro Mommy

Book Hooked Blog

Dolce Bellezza

 The Written World

The Most Happy Reader

Book description:

All her life, Joy’s been haunted by a man she’s never met — her visionary grandfather, the artist Lorenzo. At work on digging a New York subway tunnel, his pickaxe struck the remains of an ancient Dutch trading ship — and a vision lit up the underground, convincing him that he was blessed. As it turned out, his children did well in life, and almost a century later, his granddaughter Joy, a gifted linguist, married the Canadian descendant of the lost ship’s captain. 

Yet nonno’s story also led to the death of Joy’s cousin Leonora, her Aunt Elena’s only child. It was a tragedy that might have been prevented by Joy’s father Eddie, a man who’s been bruised by life and who seldom speaks to his sister. Yet in the year 2000, he has no choice. Wealthy Aunt Elena and Uncle Carlo are coming from Rome to New York City to celebrate their fiftieth wedding anniversary. They’ve invited the family to dine at the sky-high restaurant in one of the Twin Towers — above the tunnel where nonno Lorenzo saw his vision long ago. On the first day of summer, Elena and Eddie will face each other at last. 

Midsummer is a story of family ties and fortune, and of finding peace as life nears its close, high above the historic place where nonno’s story began.

Opening lines:

"Ours is a family of dreamers, beginning with nonno Lorenzo, who had a vision underground.

“While my grandfather dug a subway tunnel in downtown Manhattan, his pickaxe shattered into brilliant light, revealing the shadow of a lost, three-masted ship. A vision revealed by the grace of God—or so he thought—a sign of blessing that flowered in Elena, his fortunate daughter; that grew in Eddie, his skeptical, educated son.”

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What's What in the Sunday Salon--June 8

What I’m reading

• in print / on screen

The great irony of going to Book Expo is how little time it gives you for reading books. I didn’t manage to get through more than a few pages a day while I was there, and it feels like most of the reading I’ve done since I got back has been connected, in one way or another, to creating blog posts about the experience.

That said, I have a blog tour date for the novella Midsummer this Tuesday, and a few promising-looking July releases for Shelf Awareness consideration

• on audio

June is #Audiomonth, and I have a couple of audiobook reviews scheduled to go up next week. However, since I haven’t really gotten back into normal commuting mode yet post-BEA, and I’ve been catching up on podcasts when I have been en route to and from the office, I haven’t actually listened to an audiobook yet this month. I think this is going to be my next one:

Congratulations to The Martian by Andy Weir, narrated by R.C. Bray! You've won the first #ArmchairAudies Listener's Choice award!
— Jennifer Conner (@LitHousewife) May 30, 2014

What I’m watching

I’m enjoying the heck out of 24: Live Another Day not despite its cliches, but at least partly because of them. I watched this show faithfully for its first six seasons, and while I have my doubts that it was ever really all that good—except maybe during Day 5—it’s returned with all of its conventions in full, ridiculous working order. (And speaking of ridiculous–please, Chloe, wash out that black hair dye and scrape off the eyeliner!)

What I’m writing

I have a post scheduled for Thursday in response to one of BlogHer’s “Selfiebration” topics, and I’ll be interested in seeing your responses to it!

To help fill the yawning chasm of months until the final seven episodes air, I’m sorting out thoughts for a “Fan(girl)’s Notes” on Mad Men. I figure I have time for this one—and if you have catching up to do, so do you!

What caught my eye this week

“Relevance is entirely a question of degrees and multiplicity. So maybe the question we should be asking is not ‘am I relevant?’ Maybe we should be more focused on WHO we want to be relevant to! THAT is the question that shapes our individual blogs and blogging experiences and can ultimately bring us to a state of contentment with our blogs or drive us stark raving mad.”

—From Andi’s response to her own question, “Are book bloggers relevant?

“The announcement that next year’s show will consist of a two-day BookExpo, followed by two days of BookCon, caused several BEA attendees to feel that this is a turning point for the show. After years of some people questioning BEA’s future, suddenly a more attractive version–one focused on BookCon–had become very appealing to show organizer Reed. ‘I never paid much attention to the negative talk,’ said one attendee. ‘Until BookCon.’”

—From Shelf Awareness’ report "#BEA14: BookCon Overwhelms/Energizes BEA," suggesting that the success or failure of BookCon may be largely a matter of perspective. The fact that many book bloggers were not impressed tells me that when it comes to matters BEA-related, we’re inclined to see ourselves as publishing-industry or media people rather than part of the general reading public. I’m afraid BEA might have other ideas…

Hope they don't decide bloggers are "the public" & try to route us into the 2 days of BookCon instead of BEA in 2015
— Florinda PVasquez (@florinda_3rs) June 2, 2014

What Else is New? (With Extra Gratuitous Photos!)

BEA week lured me back into Twitter in a fairly big way–I’ve even installed the Tweetdeck app for Chrome. And I am quickly remembering my conflicted relationship with the giant chat room/feed reader/time suck that Twitter is. Part of me hopes that my workplace decides to block it again, thus saving me from myself.

If you’ve already seen my BEA recap posts (and if you haven’t, they’re both linked above), you’ve seen how much I’m enjoying playing around with Storify.

Oh, and there’s this. The book box from BEA arrived on Friday.

Happy Sunday!

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