Wants to read Breeze Felt at Moonrise
book
Rated Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes 10/10
I confess a weakness for the most brilliant person in the room. People who are great at what they do, whatever their “thing” may be, are my favorites. Excellence is dead sexy, especially when it comes to intelligence and the desire to improve. For this reason, I'm interested in the character of Sherlock Holmes.<br><br>Oh, sure, he's maddening to deal with — abrupt, insensitive, and distant at times — but the skill with which he gathers and assesses information is why his character has endured since Sir Arthur Conan Doyle created him in 1887. In <i>Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes</i>, Maria Konnikova examines what goes into Holmes' process, the way he can block out all other distractions in order to solve his cases, and how ordinary people can use these skills in their everyday life.<br><br>(Read the rest of my review at <a href="http://glorifiedloveletters.blogspot.com/2013/12/mastermind-how-to-think-like-sherlock.html">Glorified Love Letters</a>.)
Rated Torchwood: Save Our Souls 10/10
<div>A spooky voice on the speakers, on an isolated island, and people are gonna die? SIGN ME UP.</div>
Rated The Omega Factor: Immaculate Possessions 8/10
<div>A solid, spooky tale. Now having finished this, I've listened to all the Omega Factor content from Big Finish, so I hope they make more. Here's hoping.</div>
Rated Doctor Who: Battlefield 8/10
A really solid Doctor Who tale made imaginatively better because I know my gal Jean Marsh plays Morgaine in the televised version. I read this aloud to my 9 year old son, a few pages at a time most nights, and we both enjoyed it.
Rated Cue the Sun! The Invention of Reality TV 9/10
Edited 5d ago
Rated Doctor Who: Human Resources, Part One 10/10
This was excellent.
Wants to read I Married You for Happiness
Rated The Body Is Not an Apology: The Power of Radical Self-Love 8/10
<div>I read the first edition of this, so some of the people cited do not hold up to 2023, but I will assume any quibbles I have are addressed in the new second edition. I also wish it touched a bit more on disability. Still, there's lots of good thoughts here, whether you're just beginning your journey to body acceptance or you're a semi-jaded know-it-all who still needs to have a word with yourself here and there. Worth a read. </div>
Wants to read The Chitlin' Circuit: And the Road to Rock 'n' Roll
Rated Doctor Who: Shada 10/10
I've read the book, watched the Eighth Doctor animated version of this, and now finally listened to the CD audio adventure of Shada, so I guess this means it's one of my favorites. It's a very good Doctor Who story from Douglas Adams (yes, THAT Douglas Adams, for those of you who were unfamiliar with his having written for the show) featuring Romana II and K9, and if they are indeed going to make an animated Fourth Doctor version, I expect I'll be into that one too.
Wants to read The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer
Rated The Most Beautiful Walk in the World: A Pedestrian in Paris 8/10
John Baxter effortlessly merges the stories of his walking tours with bits of additional history, as well as stories from his own life, and what the stories mean to him. He makes you want to binge out on all the books and art he mentions, followed by booking plane tickets. In short, he is a very good guide.<br><br>(My full review can be found on <a href="http://glorifiedloveletters.blogspot.com/2011/11/most-beautiful-walk-in-world-pedestrian.html">Glorified Love Letters</a>.)
Rated Clever Girl 10/10
What I like about Tessa Hadley’s writing is its detail. She describes scents particularly well — the top of a small child’s head, a lover’s neck, the cool air of early evening. Calling these different stages of Stella’s life “snapshots” is particularly apt because one can stare at a photo and see the texture of a chair, the way the light reflects off a person’s hair. She somehow manages to convey all the lust, loneliness, longing brimming in the woman’s heart through the use of a few succinct phrases. Writing rarely feels more true than when I’m reading her books.<br><br>(Full review can be found at <a href="http://persephonemagazine.com/2015/03/3-book-recommendations-illuminating-womens-lives/">Persephone Magazine</a>.)
Rated Doctor Who: The Marian Conspiracy 10/10
<div>I'd heard only one story with Evelyn before, so I didn't have a proper appreciation for her yet, but now I do! What a great character. Really glad I bought the bundles that contain all her stories so I can hear them all now. This is a good throwback to when the show did more full-on historical tales. </div>
Rated The Truth Lenders: A multimedia novel 8/10
2510: After the wars, science progressed to the point where other species live and work among the reduced human population. A pharmaceutical news conglomerate called News Now! Corporation controls much of this post-progress society, in which anti-establishment, anti-corporate critics are regularly persecuted and atomically rearranged into more useful items — say, vegetables or water for a struggling third world nation. The island of Manhattan no longer exists; in its place is the undercity Atlas, domed beneath the ocean, climate controlled and accessible by the subway-like trundcar. Children are taught The New Language Model in their Zen English classes, with hopes of phasing out language in order to attain enlightenment. Reading has fallen out of favor with so many voice-activated devices and there are only two remaining independent bands on the planet. Amidst all this is a news anchor, Sammy, a beautiful woman who the entire world has come to know and trust.<br><br>Architect and designer Peter Scharber, along with his colleague Donaldson West, are part of the team testing News Now! Corporation’s latest venture — a pill that takes subscribers inside any news story while they sleep. Sammy guides them as the story appears to happen in real time, and by the time a person wakes, they are informed. Before long Peter and Donaldson begin suspect that the company is up to something far more sinister than the easy distribution of information.<br><br>In her first novel, Thuy-Dzuong Nguyen <i>(pronounced Twee Zoh Win)</i> has created an entire world where she explores creativity, realism and metaphysics. Much in the same way one has to adjust to reading works written hundreds of years ago, there is a lot of new information to absorb. Realizing this, the book is peppered with footnotes to provide a greater sense of place. Early on Peter and Donaldson discuss the Sammy Brain Project:<br><br><blockquote>“Right now they’re injecting nanosensors into her skin, and it doesn’t hurt because they’re so nano from the shrinking algorithms (18).”<br></blockquote><br><br>Rather than have the characters reveal information that they would already know, the reader jumps to the bottom of the page for an explanation:<br><br><blockquote>18 Atoms, theoretically, are mostly empty. The nucleus of any particular atom is a volumetrically small fraction of the atom, while the electron cloud is a tiny fraction of both mass and volume. Scientists went and compressed that wasted space in the development of shrinking technology. As a side benefit, no more jail overcrowding.</blockquote><br><br><br>The story has a subtle, meta humor, one that calls attention the fact that it is indeed a book with a reader, and that the writer and reader have present-day knowledge. There are jokes about fonts, picas, books and culture that are especially funny if one has ever worked in the publications industry. Broadsheet newspapers are considered rude in this world because they take up so much space, therefore interfering with the personal space of others. Instead, Atlas has a more “acceptable” newspaper (knowingly called <i>The Atlas Shrug</i>), which comes in a width of 46 pica — roughly the same width as the human headspan. All of its stories are corporation and government approved. In opposition is an underground form of journalism, operating in basements and printing stories about corruption, all while planning a creative uprising, the Nostalgia Movement. They want to show the value of the history, justice and free-thinking, for “There is nothing more valuable than something true and authentic.”<br><br>What makes the novel multimedia? Beyond textual footnotes is an enclosed CD that is referenced throughout the story. When the mainstream and publically-traded band SpynSpeck [Spine-Speck:]’s trademark song, “Duck Wave Function,” is mentioned, a footnote directs the reader to the appropriate track. There, one can hear just what a deconstructural, robo-rock pop band sounds like and how they recycle small fractions of existing songs into new ones. “They contributed to a post-post-postmodern musical movement in which new styles challenged what people classified as true music,” a footnote informs.<br><br>Telegrams, news broadcasts, and single lines of dialogue are also represented on the CD, and while it might be occasionally cumbersome to have the CD queued up while reading, it does add a certain level of engagement to the experience. Whole essays and articles have been written about the trouble with writing about fictional music, about how the reader interprets a audible medium by absorbing it visually instead, but Thuy saves the reader the trouble.<br><br>Of course, this begs the question: Is the Footnotes CD a mere bonus feature, or is it like the News Now! pills, “helpfully” informing the reader without that pesky burden of self-interpretation? Perhaps it is just one more meta moment in a meta-futuristic novel, a wink towards the plot itself.<br><br><i>The Truth Lenders</i> also acknowledges that no creative work is a one-(wo)man show. Thuy self-published the novel with the help of other designers, musicians and artists who live in and around the Spokane, Washington area. The Footnotes CD was produced, mixed and mastered by Joe Varela of Black Lab Recording Studios in San Francisco, a man who gets a nod within the story itself every time “Varela University” is mentioned. There are extensive credits as to who did what at the back of the book, as well as a list of recommended reading that informed the story. Musicians Kevin Long, Dane Ueland, Ross Robinette contribute their fictional selves to the CD, as well as Spokane writers Kurt Olson and Isamu Jordan. No person pulls all their ideas from the ether after all, so even the sources for jokes receive credit.<br><br>The end result of all this collaboration is an entire world which takes some time to acclimate, but provides plenty of thought-provoking ideas. And while, yes, the story is more concept-over-character, the characters are rendered clearly. Their history unfolds gradually as society begins to value the past again. While there’s a lot going on and infinite details to digest, it’s helpful to just keep going, trusting that all will align in the end. <i>The Truth Lenders</i> is possibly a one-of-a-kind effort, original both in its content and delivery, and for that, Thuy-Dzuong Nguyen deserves utmost praise.<br><br><br>For those interested in purchasing the book, contact Thuy-Dzuong Nguyen at truthlenders [at :] gmail [dot:] com or visit <a href="http://www.truthlenders.com">truthlenders.com</a> For those who live in the Spokane, WA area, it is also available at Auntie's Bookstore.<br><br><i>(This review originally appeared on <a href="http://glorifiedloveletters.blogspot.com/2010/04/truth-lenders-multimedia-novel-by-thuy.html">Glorified Love Letters</a> on April 27, 2010.)</i>
Wants to read The Secret Lives of People in Love
Rated Doctor Who: Horror of Glam Rock 8/10
Loses a point for a trans-related joke (though I do understand this came out almost a decade ago. Still), but otherwise this is lots of good fun. Lots of references to other DW episodes, and I can see this as a standalone episode of the TV show.
Wants to read Creativity: The Perfect Crime