Showing posts with label reading journals. Show all posts
Showing posts with label reading journals. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 19, 2017

"Make Me" makes me write

continued from previous post below

What made me want to write about Make Me was how it made me want to do a little research.  He writes about several things I never heard of, along with using a few words as if everybody knows what they mean, when I didn't have a clue.  I hate it when that happens.
Spoiler alert here, and I am sorry, because I think most people would enjoy the book and I hate to reveal anything about it, but I have to.  The plot involves the Deep Web.  I had heard of the Dark Web, which actually sounds more evil than the Deep Web, but is basically only stuff on the web that isn't active anymore but will never quite go away.  The Deep Web, on the other hand, is very active, despite the difficulty of searching in it.   The difficulty is caused by the site owners need to keep the sites from turning up on search engines in the first place, so that people can only get to them by referral or by a long, drawn-out process of going from one site to another.
I have to say that this is not a nice place to visit, and you sure as hell wouldn't want to live there.  What's there is stuff that is criminal.  I came across a piece on Slate that was answering the question "How do you access the Deep Web?" which laid out most of what I wanted to know and let me know that I don't ever want to access the Deep Web.
The bottom line for me is that Lee Child's book is not only compelling reading but also very firmly grounded in the real world, and that just makes the whole experience more intense.    

Sunday, September 17, 2017

I can't stand the suspense

Lee Child, British thriller writer accepting B...
Lee Child, British thriller
 writer accepting
 Barry Award.
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)
You might think I've been goofing off, since I haven't posted in a while, but you would be wrong.  I turned my paper in on time (even remembered to upload it to Blackboard), but I forgot to post during that time.  Sue me.  Anyway, after my second class I asked the prof if I could write about other things I was reading, and she said that was fine, even though it probably wouldn't help with my other projects.   So that's what I'm doing today, but I'm going to split it up into several posts.  
I've been reading one of Lee Child's Jack Reacher books, Make Me, which is going really fast.  He always makes you wait to find out what's really going on, almost until you can't stand it (when I tell you that I even missed a couple of events on Marvel Puzzle Quest--without noticing!-- because I was reading, you can see how compelling it is), and I haven't been able to stop until now.  In fact, I only stopped because my hand cramped up from holding the Nook; I think I was gripping too hard, most likely from the suspense.
continued in next post

Tuesday, April 21, 2015

Get Hexed!

Turned in my résumé project yesterday and started in on Hexed, the next Iron Druid book, as soon as I got off work.  My brother came over around 7 (more about that later), so I didn't get to pick it up again until an hour ago.  

I canNOT believe HBO didn't pick up on these books when True Blood was winding down.  There's lots of nudity, dangerous/scary goddess sex, porn-star looking witches, and a funny dog!  What more could you ask for?  I'm at the part where Atticus is fighting the German witches, half of whom are pregnant with demonspawn, and he's just decapitated one, losing half an ear in the process.  I'm getting a new project tomorrow, so I need to finish this tonight and not start the next one-- I seriously cannot put these down. 

Monday, April 20, 2015

By Special Request: More about the Iron Druid

Attila, Irish Wolfhound, propr. Mme Sylvie Saulue
Attila, Irish Wolfhound, propr. Mme Sylvie Saulue (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Rebbie, my sister, just read my last post and pointed out that (in her opinion) I didn't give enough information about the book.  After reading it again, I think she may be right, so here goes.

The book is Hounded, by Kevin Hearne, and its hero is Atticus O'Sullivan, a 2000+ year old druid.  In fact, he is the last druid, and over those years he's made some powerful enemies.  He lives in Tempe, Arizona, which is kind of a safe zone because it is difficult for his enemies to reach.  But it's not impossible, so he is repeatedly attacked by minions of his most powerful enemy, Aenghus Og, the Celtic god of love (who seems to be quite a hater for a love god).  Other Celtic gods turn up to mess with his life, but he prevails with the help of his friends, including his dog Oberon, an Irish wolfhound who wants to be like Gengis Khan and have a harem of French poodles. 

It's a lot of fun, and I think Rebbie should give it a chance.

Talk about Mythic--Kevin Hearne Has Got it All--and a Druid!

Druid Ghost lite
Druid Ghost lite (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
In between writing my résumé and waiting to get my critical analysis back, I've been re-reading Kevin Hearne's funny Iron Druid books.  After all the work I did on my paper, it's good to see that the myth criticism approach really does work even when you aren't trying to do it!  Of course, Hearne is using actual myths (and creating new ones), both the classical and the little-known, so it shouldn't be surprising that I can pick out all sorts of monomyth elements and characteristics of the archetypes in the stories.  

Anyway, if you haven't read them, you ought to give them a try, if only for the mind-to-mind conversations between Atticus (the hero) and Oberon (his dog).  Hilarious dialogue!

Friday, October 5, 2012

The Broody Mr. Bond? Step Aside, Daniel Craig!


I'm supposed to read an argument from the Norton Field Guide to Writing this week, and I looked at all of them, but they all seemed too depressing, so I went to another chapter (on evaluations) and read a 2008 New York Times movie review by A. O. Scott.  The film he's reviewing is Quantum of Solace.  By a TOTAL coincidence (really!) today is the 50th anniversary of James Bond on film, too, so I figure this is what I'm supposed to do. 

My dad is a HUGE James Bond fan, has all the movies (and the books), which means I've grown up seeing them, so this looked interesting.  But the first thing I noticed, probably because I'm working on my draft, was the way Scott wrote his review -- he's basically following the same pattern I was told to use for my paper.  He begins by explaining his "critical paradigm," which, it turns out, is a checklist of all the things you expect to see in a Bond film, then he evaluates (I won't be doing that, just analyzing) how well the film does at meeting each item's audience expectations. 

Well, according to him, it has hits and misses on things like action and gadgets, but he comes to a halt with the checklist when he reaches the category of "babes."  This is because in this film, Bond is just not interested.  Scott writes, "what gets in the way is emotion.  007's grief and rage [. . .] are forces more powerful than either duty or libido" (738).  I saw the film, and I think he's right, but then he goes on to say, "Mr. Brosnan was the first actor to allow a glimmer of complicated emotion to peek through Bond's cool, rakish facade," and this was where I came to a halt. 

No, Mr. Scott.  It was Timothy Dalton who did that, in Licence to Kill.   This is the film where Bond is out to avenge his friend Felix, remember?  Even before that in the film, Felix's new bride makes a comment about how Bond should get married, and the look on Dalton's face is not a typical Bond look (which would be a smile and shake of the head, I guess).  Instead, he somehow manages to convey that there is a TRAGIC EVENT in his past -- presumably his own wedding, in On Her Majesty's Secret Service -- that means he will never get married . . . again (don't ask me how he does this; look at it for yourself!).  If that ain't a complicated emotion, what is?  
Pierce Brosnan? Pah!  Don't make me laugh. 

BTW, my vote for best Bond is Connery, Dalton second, and Craig third.  Roger Moore makes me cringe, and Brosnan (I've liked him in other things) just doesn't grab me as Bond.

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Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Was There any Shoutin'?

Cover of "All Over but the Shoutin'"
Cover of All Over but the Shoutin'
Yesterday I got my first assignment in English 101, to set up and keep a blog all semester that covered what I was reading (and writing, I guess).  The first thing I read was a memoir, called "All Over But the Shoutin'," by Rick Bragg, about his last meeting with his father.  It's pretty clear that Bragg hated his father, who was abusive and drank a lot, but Bragg doesn't get any kind of satisfaction out of facing him down.  He doesn't say anything to his father about how much he hurt him, mainly (I think) because he's in shock at how his father looks:  old, sick, and dying.  
After I read it, I wondered if when his father died, did he and the rest of his family manage to get out all their anger at this man who Bragg calls "the monster of my childhood"?  I don't think they could, really, but I also don't think that confronting him about it would have helped anyway.  And, I guess that's Bragg's point, that some things you just have to learn to live with.
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