CV Rick

CV Rick's Year in Review for Books

In my final installment of my Year in Review for Books, I'm going to give you the best of and some specific recommendations.

Longest Audiobook of the Year:

I shied away from the really long books this year, like the biographies, Truman by David McCullough (51 hours) or Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow (35 hours). I did attempt a Neal Stephenson, but he must have been off his game for Quicksilver: it was only 22 hours long. The longest audiobook I listened to this year was A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge. Logging in at 28 hours and 24 minutes it was longest by nearly 5 minutes! It was pretty good but a bit of a letdown as a sequel to A Fire Upon the Deep because I was looking for more details of the mathematical construction of his slow to fast zone universe.

Best Anthology or Collection:

I'm starting to sound like a fanboy, but the best collection of short stories I read this year was The Elephant Vanishes by Haruki Murakami. It seems like everything he's written has ended up in my favorites sometime. Close behind the Murakami was new writer, Joe Hill with his horror collection, 20th Century Ghosts. Scary in a practical way, where the fright comes directly from the character's responses to the situations rather than just from the shock, gore, and scare more common in horror.

Best Fantasy Book:

This one was close for me between an new writer and an established author. David Anthony Durham's high fantasy thriller, Acacia breathed new life into a tired genre. It was smart, quick, dark and most importantly, complete. It started and ended a story in the same volume and that story was strong. But it wasn't quite the complete emotional ride that Dan Simmons accomplished in his epic tale of 19^th century arctic exploration, The Terror. This brilliant book caught the mood and flavor of the British Navy like nothing I've read since since Patrick O'Brien's Aubrey-Maturin Series.

Best Horror Book:

I don't read a lot of horror because it's so formulaic and that grates on my temper, but occasionally I'll give a book a go. This year I did and I'm glad I did because I've become a Joe Hill fan. His collection, mentioned above was well done, but his novel was even better. Heart Shaped Box is a terrifying musical ride as an aging goth-rock star invites a ghost to haunt him, but that ghost doesn't just want to haunt him, it wants to kill him. Very clever story, but the protagonist Judas Coyne is a memorable tough character who dominates the story. You hate him, love him, and root for and against him sometimes all in the same scene. I'll be picking up every book Joe Hill writes.

And finally I get to the best book of the year.

I ended up with three books that were head and shoulders above the rest. One of them I mentioned yesterday in the Science Fiction list is The Road by Cormac McCarthy. The story stayed with me long after I'd finished it. Another very powerful story that felt a lot like To Kill a Mockingbird was The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd. It was the American South after blacks got the right to vote. It was a young girl figuring out where she belonged and why it wasn't with her abusive father. It was loss and discovery and beautiful imagery and perfect dialogue. It was complete. But it wasn't the best book of the year.

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver was the best book of the year. It's a story of discovery told by the three daughters and wife of a Pentacostal Preacher who travels to the revolutionary

Congo

in the 1950's. The preacher fails his wife and children and himself, but he never fails God. It's so well told that I want every fundamentalist in this country to be personally touched by this grand story.

That's my year in books. I hope next year is as varied and as rewarding as this year's was.

Your angry reader,

CV Rick

 

The Science Fiction Year in Review - 2008

Today I'm going to explore the Science Fiction Books I listened to in 2008.

I heard some awesome books. And some that weren't so good.

To the List - The Best Science Fiction Book of the Year:

Since it's the category with the most books I consumed this year, I'm giving you the top ten. I read some really good ones and some disappointing ones. Now some of these were sold as Mainstream novels, but I believe that if it feels like SF and sounds like SF then it is SF. Without Further adieu:

10.  Idlewild by Nick Sagan. This was kind of the Matrix but with a little more “new” and a little less Messiah. I liked it.

9. The Ghost Brigades by John Scalzi. In my opinion this is the best of his series, qualified by noting that I haven't read Zoe's Tale yet. It's a fast-paced adventure with all the best storytelling elements taken right from Carl Yung's archetypes and Joe Campbell's monomyth structure. Competent and emotional at the same time.

8. Thirteen by Richard K Morgan. Morgan holds nothing back – the violence is brutal, the sex is raw, and the commentary on how masculinity and race engender fear from 'normal' society is unguarded. The protagonist is the traditional hero – someone that the 'village' fears, but needs because he has the skills and power of the savages, but when the savages are vanquished, the hero himself becomes the greatest threat. It's fast and fun like a roller coaster without seatbelts or lap restraints.

7. To Your Scattered Bodies Go: A Riverwold Novel by Philip Jose Farmer. This classic took me a long time to get around to reading and I'm glad I did. A science fiction version of the afterlife complete with a larger than life hero, Sir Richard Burton. I thoroughly enjoyed it although I wouldn't put it in my ultimate top-100 essential science fiction novel list.

6. City at the End of Time by Greg Bear. This new novel is a very ambitious undertaking for Mr. Bear. He proposes a unified theory of all science and mathematics through language – specifically through a library of infinite knowledge. He pulls it off and it's fascinating, if a bit esoteric for my taste in places.

5. The Wind Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami. Beautiful language and surrealism in a tale about mystic visions given by and to the protagonist, Toru Okada AKA “Mr Wind-Up Bird.” I include it as science fiction because the past and the present are strands of the same story and the women in the story came and go as the Toru Okada moves through what appear to be multiple dimensions, each of which finds him occupying a different role and creating a different reality. Murakami is among my favorite authors along with Hemingway and Vonnegut.

4. Star Maker by Olaf Stapledon. I read this book because so many authors referred to it as a seminal, prophetic work in the field. Written in 1937 by Stapledon, a British philosopher, the story runs through billions of years and infinite distances as the author tackles creation, alien thought and physiology, and the distraction of God as an artist rather than a paternal creator. It's beautiful and stunning and kind of blew me away despite its build-up.

3. Rant: An Oral Biography of Buster Casey by Chuck Palahniuk. The first thing about this book is that it's disgusting and the characters have very few, if any, redeeming value. The second thing about this book is that I couldn't put it down. It grabbed me from the start and threw a genre staple right on its head when Palahniuk asks some important questions like what happens if time travel paradoxes don't exist at all? It's great, but not for a weak stomach or faint composition.

2. Spin by Robert Charles Wilson. The earth is enveloped by a sphere of impregnable material that isolates us from the rest of the galaxy. Why? Who did it? And is it a bad thing? These are the questions asked, answered and at that moment the story just blows you away.

1. The best science fiction book of the year for me was The Road by Cormac McCarthy. It's a simple story of a dying man trying to teach his nine-year old son how to survive in a post-apocalyptic world devoid food and filled with feral humans. It's dark, foreboding, brilliant to the extreme and fulfills every promise of this genre we call Science Fiction. I just wish it'd been a science fiction writer who'd delivered it.

ps. Sorry, Rose. No female authors made my list this year.

Non-Fiction Year in Review

I'm going to brag about the Audiobooks I read this year. Counting all Books, Short Stories, Essays and episodes of This American Life, I listened to 943 hours of audio. That's almost 24 solid work-weeks of listening – eight hours a day, five days a week. I also spent a considerable amount of time listening to the radio and a lot of time on the phone and I don't even have estimates for those distractions.

Today I'm going to summarize the Non-Fiction Highlights.  Tomorrow I plan on giving you the fiction highs and lows. 

Non Fiction:

Best Memoir: This is a tough one for me because I read some awesome personal stories. Steve Martin's Born Standing Up was a great look at how a person dedicated himself to mastering every facet of a craft – the craft of comedy – and all the hard work necessary to go from having a dream to realizing it. Bob Dylan's Chronicles was an amazing piece of prose, written by a master wordsmith, and following the life of music through the travels of a musician.

But the best, most heartbreaking, and poignant memoir of the year was Ishmael Beah's A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier. Ishmael was born in Sierra Leone and was forced to become a soldier or die when he was barely a teenager. He details the atrocities, the rapes, the wanton slaughter that he and other boys did while high on Cocaine and other drugs. It's not only the struggle of one boy who never got to be a boy, but it's a metaphor for a state that can never become a true nation. It was heartbreaking and I wept while listening.

Best Science: I read several good ones in this category also. In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan is a guide to eating more real food in greater variety. It taught me a lot about nutrition. Two books by Simon Winchester were interesting: Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883 and The Map That Changed the World: William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geometry. I'd recommend them both.

The best Science-related book was Einstein by Walter Isaacson. It was a great biography of one of the smartest men of the 20^th Century, but it was also a great history of the world of theoretical physics as it launched into the atomic and quantum ages.

Best History Book: This one was by Hampton Sides and it was titled Ghost Soldiers: The Fogotten Epic Story of World War II's Most Dramatic Mission. This is the most daring large-scale rescue by a special forces unit in history. Henry Mucci and his Army Rangers and Philippine Guerillas rescued hundreds of survivors of the Bataan Death March and brought them to safety while being pursued by Japanese forces. It's so exciting that it reads like fiction.

After the jump is my Non-Fiction Book List

Religious Addiction: A Request from the Comments

Remember my post from 2007 about Religious Addiction?  A commenter named Frustrated and Overwhelmed left the following:

Rick, that was an amazing story. I'm not Mormon but I've watched my husband replace me with his reading, studying to quickly looking like an addict. I'd never in a million years thought of religion as a possible addiction until I googled it. Is there any way to get him to see that he really does have a part in the destruction of our marriage and that he has become virtually obsessed? I have two kids, one of them sees his behavior but is choosing to enable it because he is now talking to her again so she is happy. And my son is just oblivious. PLEASE HELP ME!

It's a tough one, F&O.  The real problem is that no one understands that religious addiction is a real problem that can harm others and destroy one's relationship with their family.  See, we live in a society where religion, particularly Christianity, is the ultimate good.  We are told that religious people have the strongest relationship with God and that religion brings families together.  It's those members of the family who don't share the addiction that are the outcasts - that "have the problem." 

I know that because I grew up being the outcast.  I tried to be religious.  I tried to share the values that surrounded me and therefore become the loved and desired one.  But it didn't work because I don't share that compulsion to devote all myself to God and transfer all my own problems into the Great Almighty.  I don't believe that my finances will come together if I pray more or that my promotion hinges on a few more hours a week of Bible study.  I believe that I get ahead, or behind, based on my own efforts and by the results that I can influence.  I don't transfer my reality to the whims of an omnipotent being with nothing better to do than keep devotional score.

But when it comes down to how others view us, F&O, you will be on the losing end.  How do you say, "he gave too much of himself to God and not enough to me?"  How do you claim emotional abandonment when Job gave everything, including the lives of his family, to God's challenge?  Your own sacrifices seem Biblically paltry when you whine about your problems.  The devotee is always the one who is struggling and trying.  After all, religion strengthens families, it NEVER tears them apart.   This isn't true, of course, but it's what we see on our Christian-friendly television, on CNN Newshour, and from our parents and culture. 

The fact of the matter is that if two people share an obsession, it can bring them together.  But if one of them doesn't then the relationship can suffer. 

My advice is to forget about public perceptions.   You didn't mention that being a concern, but if it were me it would be.  Tell your husband that you don't share his passion in this area, but that you want him to exert as much energy and desire into things you care about as he demands of you in this area that he cares about.  Ask him to join you in counseling from a neutral counselor - it wouldn't make sense to have your pastor, Bishop, or rabbi counsel you when you are struggling with the very institution they represent. 

You can't deny him his religion, but you can make him aware of the impact it's having on you, and on his family. 

Be temperate in all things, after all. 

I'm Going to be at the Bulldog today!

If you're in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area and want to see me drinking, drinking, drunk - you're welcome to come to the Bulldog Bar and Restaurant on the corner of Lyndale and 26th St. S.  We're having our "End of Window Washing Season Drunk".  We'd call it a holiday party or end of the year celebration, but this isn't corporate America, it's a small business and we're honest with what it's about.  Next week I'll take my brother out to a nice appreciation dinner, but today it's about the drinking. 

Come on over and take stories with me .. .  you might even learn what happened in the two that I started on this blog and haven't completed.

I'll be there from noon until I'm poured out the front door. 

Thanks,

Rick

My Work Season

I've made reference to my work season before . . . but now I'm going to elaborate. 

When I started my little business I thought it'd be good to make enough money to cover my expenses and pay down some of my debt while freeing me up time-wise to pursue my dream of writing.  The real appeal was to have the winter off to write. 

It's gotten a bit out of control.   I stopped advertising three years ago because I already had enough work to fill my schedule.  But it just kept coming via word of mouth. 

This fall I added over 40 new clients and went a stretch between September 1st and November 25th without an unscheduled day.  There is a recession and it's probably going to hit me, but if it takes 20% to 30% of my work away, that means I'll be at a level where I can still do all the work without destroying my body. 

Here are some highlights, and lowlights:

I'm Back - Work Season's Over

 There's a recession going on and election concluded, but I barely had time to notice any of it and I'm sorry to anyone who reads this blog for that.

I'm back and the writing begins today. 

Feel Better Now?

Community Organizers

"Before I became governor of the great state of Alaska, I was mayor of my hometown,''; vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin said here last night. "And since our opponents in this presidential election seem to look down on that experience, let me explain to them what the job involves. I guess a small-town mayor if sort of like a community organizer, except that you have actual responsibilities.''

Seemed like a good line, right?

But then there's this one:

“Jesus was a community organizer. Pontius Pilate was a governor.”

Other "community organizers?"

Gandhi
Dr. Martin Luther King
Mother Teresa
Black Elk
Cezar Chavez
Lec Walesa
Eleanor Roosevelt
Thornton Blackburn (look him up)
the Dalai Lama
Susan B. Anthony
Nelson Mandela
and, incidentally Cindy McCain

I don't suppose any of them could've been mayor of a small town in Alaska or Governor of a state whose population is less than the Illinois' 13th Congressional District, which was represented by State Legislator, Barack Obama, for six years.

rick, fighting fuckwittedness

Work Update . . .

This weekend I updated my database and calendar in preparation for the Autumn season.  I was up very late each night working on this because I couldn't put it off any longer.  One of the things I wanted to ensure is that my regular clients (those who have scheduled me for at least the past two years and whom I like working for) will get scheduling slots this year - I don't want to miss anyone. 

I made that list of the clients I absolutely have to call . . . there are 43 of them.  Combine that with a week of guaranteed gutter cleanings in November, ten days I've promised to a cleaning company to whomI subcontract, and a large nursing home job that's already in the schedule and I've already filled 60 days of the Fall.  Take out ten days for rain/weather and that leaves me with about 20 days available between September 1st and November 30th.  Translation - - I'm a very busy guy. 

This is all with no advertising and me having raised my prices on new customers by 25%. 

Oh, and if any of you know someone who is a wiz with Word, Excel, and mail merging to custom documents, have them give me a call.  I have work that I don't have time to mess around with.  I'll pay.  (actually, I use Open Office but I can convert the files to Word and Excel). 

 - rick, busy

Jane's Battlestar Galactica Questions Answered.

Today I was informed that through my own rudeness Jane's questions about the show I recommended have gone unanswered.  In order to correct that, I'm going to answer them now . . . feel free to ask more questions in the comments.

Question: do they ever address where they get food?

In the fleet there are at least two ships that specifically produce crops and animals.  These were passing references and brief graphics, but they were there and I think it was principally in the episode that dealt with the water shortage.

Jane Espenson, writer of the episode called The Passage, had this to say about the food issue: 

"The research that I really did on my own was about figuring out how the fleet had been making food prior to this crisis. The explanation was cut for length, but in one draft it was stated that the fleet "grew" meat from cloned cells and that it was this system that got so badly contaminated. As for the algae, I think that was already in place when I was given the story... it's just an obvious alternative protein source."

Question: were some humans left on New Caprica? If so, they must go get them, or at least talk about it, right?

There were very few humans left on New Caprica and those were either collaborators with the Cylons or prisoners.  The occupation and subsequent rescue mission ended up decreasing the human population by over 2,000 people.  After the Galactica rescue mission, we can assume that whoever remained is dead or gone from the planet as the Cylons left it as well.

Comment: please do not tell me that Lucy Lawless and #6 are going to be jealous of each other now. Over Gaius. Come ON.

This issue is complicated, but it ends badly.  One of the story segments I liked least in the series.

So is Kasey Starbuck's offspring? They took her ovary and made Kasey, and implanted her in that woman who thinks she's Kasey's biological mom, right?

No, Kacey is not really Starbuck's.  That was a lie used to manipulate Starbuck into buying into Leobon's imaginary family scenario.  When they are returned to Galactica; Brynn, who is Kacey's real mother gets her back.  She had been stolen from her mother right after the Cylon's arrived on New Caprica.

I hope that helps.

 - rick, galactica geek.

Saturday Meme - Pieces of Eight

This is from Sideon, although i didn't like the instructions:  Share eight possible reactions to the various possible and impossible circumstances.  That makes it sound like each question should have eight answers.  I'm just going to do an answer per question.  Enjoy.

1 - What would you do if you came into a lot of money?

That's the dream, right?  To become fabulously wealthy without having to do anything to get there. So if that happened by inheriting money from my poverty-stricken redneck family or winning the lottery or whatever: 

First I'd set up college funds so the kids could get any kind of education they desire.  Then I'd buy a nice, comfortable house here in the city, and then I'd pour a bit of money into my business to grow it to a proper size in order to hire a manager.  Then I'd write.  Those are my big dreams.

2 - What would you do if you were invited to a nude gathering/party/wedding, etc.?

I'd strip down of course.

3 - You dream of an disaster approaching in three days (tornado, hurricane, earthquake, meteor). What do you do, if anything?

I write it down and try to figure out if there's a story in it.  I don't believe it'll come true.

4 - You get to choose the Vice Presidential candidate for John McCain. Who do you choose to help him win or lose, and why?

I choose Mitt Romney because win or lose it brings more attention to Mormonism and helps me draw attention to my story, Alma the Lamanite.

5 - You are in a witness protection program. Who do you decide to be, where will you live, and what profession will you choose?

I own a bar in Anchorage, Alaska.  I'm Jan Svengarden and I've had a voice coach teach me to speak with a Swedish accent (which is uncomfortable when someone speaks to me in Swedish and I just nod my head). 

6 - You made reservations at a swanky restaurant. You are seated. The host screws up and brings someone famous that you happen to admire… to sit with you. Who’s the surprise company, and what’s your reaction?

Ian Stewart.  She sits him down and I introduce myself and we discuss various personalities in the field of mathematics and literature - and science fiction.  I try to get a better understanding of parallel universe theories from him. 

7 - Your senses merge and you see colors and visions when you listen to music, particularly choir ensembles or classical. What do you see when you hear your favorite piece?

So, I have synesthesia and weird visions.  I see the future and I see the keys that I need to form a new religious cult where I can convince my followers of all manner of ridiculous beliefs and have them perform amazing acts of self-sacrifice, all to my benefit.

8 - Describe how you are lucky.

I am lucky because I have been able to overcome every obstacle in my life thus far. I'm lucky because I'm pretty good at figuring things out, learning quickly.  I have a great family and my kids are good looking and above average.  Sugar is the most amazing woman who understands me better than I understand myself.  I have great friends and people who not only support me, but give me a kick in the ass when I get off track with respect to my goals.  I'm lucky that I can write things down and people come to read what I've written. 

 - rick, meme'ing

Featured Post - Ninja Writer's Story Club - Lyda Morehouse

Featured Post - This will stay on top of the page for a week - scroll down for newer content.

Of all the stories I've read by Lyda, her first published story is both my favorite and her shortest.

Irish Blood

A dying soldier is visited by someone darker than death. 

Some French pasture is the last place I should be doing my dying. It irks me especially to be dying for a foreign king...ah, still, it seems unavoidable. The shrapnel from the mortar bomb sliced clean through something major in my chest. Blood is everywhere. I can feel its warm, stickiness on the hard ground beneath me. I wouldn't be so worried, except the pain disappeared an hour or more ago. Now, all that's left is a sort of gut-wrenching, floating feeling. Off in the distance, beyond the artillery fire, I can hear some birds singing. Between their twittering and that warm breeze bringing the smell of sweetgrass, a guy could get to feeling peaceful.

Read it.

Political Violence In America

Remember back in school when you had to deal with a bully?  The bully's pattern was predictable: first taunting and insults, second violence. 

It works the same on a national scale.  First taunts and insults, then violence. 

Today in a political act of violence, the head of the Democratic Party in Arkansas was gunned down.  Two weeks ago a man walked into a Unitarian Universalist Church in Tennessee and killed two and wounded seven during a children's music program.

Taunted by talk radio, egged on by pundits, these people are the weapons in the right-wing's bullying.  Were they mentally ill?  Sure they were, but they still were doing what they thought was right, what they thought would help their cause. 

Remember this: political violence in this country is almost always Conservative on Progressive:
JFK
Bobby Kennedy
Dr. Martin Luther King
Kent State
Matthew Shepard
just to name a few . . .

 - rick, disgusted

Right Brain or Left Brain Test

I've been working on revising a story entitled Demon Deacon and the Ballerina Music Box.  It brought this up on a search I made while taking a break.

THE Right Brain vs Left Brain test ... do you see the dancer turning clockwise or anti-clockwise?

If clockwise, then you use more of the right side of the brain and vice versa.

Most of us would see the dancer turning anti-clockwise though you can try to focus and change the direction; see if you can do it.

 - rick, procrastinating