More Electric Bread, a book review

Given last week's re-review, I thought I'd take the time to feature my other favorite bread-machine cookbook, More Electric Bread.  It is less eclectic in its selection of ingredients than The Bread Machine Gourmet, but still has a good range of recipes that cook the whole time in the pan, and all the recipes I have tried work.  There are the standbys--white and "whole wheat"(1), but there is also a surprising array of other yummy recipes. I have not worked my way through all of them, but favorites include "Cinnamon Sunrise," "Espresso" (a delicious coffee-flavored bread), "Maple Walnut" (mmm), and "Rice Pudding" (useful if you have leftover rice or have cooked the rice with too much water so it's mushy).

(1) See earlier comments on the portion of actual whole wheat flour that goes into these.

The Broken Hourglass: Technology Tangles, a trivial post

Technology is wonderful: The people working on The Broken Hourglass are from all over the place. Thanks to Instant Messenger and Skype, we can talk easily, and thanks to Google Docs, we can share files and edit with only a very slight time lag (It does slow down my computer).

Technology is terrible: Recently, it took 45 minutes to upload two simple files. For some reason, Google Docs didn't like the file format, so there was a long round of "Can you see it now?" "What about now?"

In other news: A recent quest up entirely too tangled and needed serious revision, so neither the elegant code nor the revised less-elegant-but-workable code will be in there. Instead, the quest has been turned inside out, thoroughly shaken, and given a new form. Revision is wonderful/revision is terrible: It usually results in a much tighter, more focused piece. It's also hard. Worth it, and part of the process, but hard.


End of trivial post. 

Gardening--Global Buckets and Tomatoes

One of the houses I pass when out walking has a tiny yard, but the owners have made the most of it. The steps up to the doorway are lined with buckets full of gorgeous tomato plants. I've admired them for weeks now--I can grow tomatoes in our raised bed, but any attempts to grow them in pots has led to scraggly, stunted plants with stunted tomatoes.  It drives me bats!

Anyway, last week, the house owner was there, and she not only gave me a couple of the tomatoes (yum!) but told me that she was using the method described at globalbuckets.org. It's a promising-looking technique that should help keep the tomatoes regularly and evenly watered. I do wish that the brothers had written out their instructions rather than putting them solely on a video, but that is a minor quibble.  I'm definitely going to try their method next year.

Spiders: Learning to Love Them by Lynn Kelly, currently reading

Just thought I'd share: The batch of book I just picked up from the library includes Spiders: Learning to Love Them by Lynne Kelly, grabbed because I couldn't resist the title or that close-up on the cover (not included in the post because I have at least one arachnophobic friend who dislikes spider pictures).

So far, I've read the introduction which contains the sentence "You don't have to leave the comfort of home to start observing spiders," which is, of course, the problem some people have with them.

I'll let you know how it is.

Beowulf, translated by Seamus Heaney, a book review, with a note on the audiobook as well

Recently I found myself wanting to read Beowulf again. I picked up my own copy, purchased I-don't-know-when, and put it down in disgust: Prose. Beowulf is not prose.. I went to the library and picked up Heaney's translation(1). Much better.

The poem itself? Still gorgeous and sweeping, right from the start.

So. The Spear-Danes in days gone by
and the kings who ruled them had courage and greatness.
We have heard of those princes' heroic campaigns.

"So." Right away, the reader dropped somewhere else, somewhen else, to meet these courageous kings and find out what became of them (2). It is a strange land and a beautiful one, full of treasure-givers, gold, glory, and monsters, such monsters!

I was once told, quite firmly, that "Beowulf is not a monster story." Well--it isn't, and then again, it is. It's got people in plenty, and a great collection of dilemmas, motives, and meanings to wend through. I love it for that reason.

But I also love the monsters.

There's Grendel, the "God-cursed brute," the relentless killer who first

grabbed thirty men
from their resting places and rushed to his lair,
flushed up and inflamed form the raid,
blundering back with the butchered corpses.

and then haunts Heorot for twelve years.

Then there is his mother, the "tarn-hag," who comes to avenge her son, killing one of Hrathgar's men before retreating down into the depths of a mere so fearful that

On its bank, the heather-stepper halts:
the hart in flight from pursuing hounds
will turn to face them with firm-set horns
and die in the wood rather than dive beneath its surface.

It is into this lake that the hero must dive to avenge the death of Hrothgar's follower and free the hall from danger--at least, danger from monsters. Even in the midst of the celebration, everyone knows it will fall someday. The reader/listener knows, because the poet tells them. The celebrants also know; their own history tells them, and this doom surrounds the light, held in temporary abeyance and fragile balance.

But, hey, I said I'd talk about monsters, and there is one yet to come, the final, greatest monster, stirred from sleep one final time to bring death(3).

Hate was ignited. The hoard-guard recognized
a human voice, teh time was over
for peace and parleying. pouring forth
in a hot battle-fume, the breath of the monster
burst from the rock. There was a rumble under ground
... The outlandish thing
writhed and convulsed viciously
turned on the king.

Like I said, gorgeous. A beautiful, wonderful, doomed world.

And marvelous language, which is why, after finishing the book, I checked out the CD's.

Beowulf was meant to be heard, not read, and I wanted to listen to it, and, as luck would have it, there is an audiobook with Heaney reading his own translation. What could be better?

To start with: An unabridged version. Seriously. Who abridges Beowulf? It's not as though the poem were really all that long!

Evidently, however, the publishers only saw fit to persuade Heaney to read some "unabridged selections" of the poem which, near as I can tell, means that instead of pulling out a word here or there (Which I agree would be dire), they yank out entire scenes (Which I also think is dire). Gone are most of Unferth's lines (Why'd they bother leaving in his loaning the sword if they were going to take everything else out?), many of the lays (Hello! These are not irrelevant bits of trivia here!) and much of the description of Grendel's home (Since this is one of my favorite bits, I resent that most particularly). Honestly!

Ok, so what about what is there?  Good point: The book is read well. A nice Irish accent never hurt anyone, and Heaney is easy to listen to, though sometimes he does over-emphasize the alliteration.

But I'm not particularly appeased by this: I wanted magnificently read. I still do.

Problematic part: The tracks are long. The poem is in on two CDs and each has a single track of over an hour long. This is fine if you plan on listening for an hour or so straight--and maybe the original hearers of the poem would have--but not so good if you're listening in bits while you walk, drive, or wash dishes. There's no way to bookmark.

Verdict: Read the poem. Read Heaney's translation, or Rebsamen's, or another one, but read it as a poem because it is a poem. Settle back into this strange world. Admire the monsters, the heroes, the world.

If you listen, find some other audio version. A complete audio version, and if it's a good one, tell me. Please. I want to listen, too.

(1)Hm. Now I find myself in a dilemma: Do I discuss the poem or the translation? Both are sources of serious debate and discussion. Bu I'm primarily a plot person, so I think I'll stick to the plot and make my ramblings on the translation here, in the footnote. In brief: There are a lot of translations. There are a lot of debates about the translations. Lots of serious and interesting discussion went on when Heaney's translation came out, some of it focusing on word choice ("Tholed"? why "Tholed"?)and some on his qualifications as a speaker of Old English. It's worth looking at them. Whatever the dispute about the translation, it is a beautiful translation, and has a good introduction that clues readers into some of the social issues present in the poem and points out that the embedded lays are, in fact, part of the story rather than diversions.


(2)Or in some translations "Lo!" or "Listen!" I actually like "so" for it's matter-of-fact method of dropping one straight into the poem, but it is open to debate.


(3)Tolkien alert: The dragon is waked when a thief sneaks in and steals a cup. I love Beowulf for itself, but I do not know if I would have loved it a much if I had not met The Hobbit first. Thanks to Tolkien, Beowulf was not, after all, wholly strange. There was a sense I had traveled this territory before, so I could do it again.

Featured Artist: Judy Greenlee

I'm going to brag for a bit about my mom now. My mom, the artist, the one who works in acrylic, watercolor, oils and pastels.

I'm proud of her, and of all the work she's put into working on her art, and I'm nagging at her intermittently to get her own blog or website, but in the meantime, this will have to do.

For one thing, I have to say, I'm completely spoiled. It's great having an artist in the family. A few years ago, I took a walk down by the river. It had been a long day, and I was enjoying the chance to get outside and just watch the world. I spent quite a while on the bridge, watching the sun set. I took a picture.

My mom painted it, and now I have a copy on my wall where I can look any time I want and remember the day and the unexpected moment of peace.

It's not just landscapes, either. When I left home, I ran around taking pictures of everyone. They fussed about the constant camera presence, and I said I wanted to have the pictures to remember them. My mom heard me and painted portraits of everyone, including the dog. I had them on my wall for years.

Most, unfortunately, were damaged in a recent move, so I can't show those off, but here are a couple others she did a while back:

Portraits are her first love, but she has painted a number of landscapes, portraits of places. Some I have, some are on her wall, some she's sold, and some my sister took with her when she moved. Some are for sale(Yes, you can buy the one of the surfer or the one of the ocean spray. No, you can't have the river at sunset or the wetlands under the sky. Those are mine). Some are up in the Huntington Beach Library now, on two of the panels.

And, yes, she does paint portraits for people outside the family.

Cottage Nursery Gardens

This is another place I'm surprised I hadn't known about earlier. I love garden stores, and Cottage Nursery Gardens is not that far away. They've got all sorts of old-fashioned flowers, the kind that are hard to find elsewhere. Wish I'd known about them when we last worked on the front yard.

The Bread Machine Gourmet by Shea Mackenzie, a book review

With hot weather closing in, it's time to reiterate my love of The Bread Machine Gourmet, still my favorite bread machine cookbook.

Homemade bread is miles ahead of the flat, packaged stuff that they sell in the grocery store. Bread from the bread machine isn't quite as good as oven-baked bread--you get a larger crumb, for one thing, and a slightly awkward shape, particularly where the paddle was. However, it has its advantages. Making bread in the bread machine means not having to be around while it bakes--it's even possible to set a timer to arrange for it to be ready by a specific time--and not having to deal with the heat of the oven during the summer months.

Trouble is, most bread machine recipes stop at a basic white. There may be one or two recipes for oatmeal bread, and just possibly a "whole wheat" bread where no more than a third of the flour is actually whole wheat. Anything truly interesting has to be removed from the pan, shaped, and baked--and there goes most of the advantage of using a bread machine. Almost no one thinks of trying new recipes, particularly not whole-grain recipes.  Shea Mackenzie is the exception. I sometimes call her book the "everything but the kitchen sink" cookbook. There are recipes for oatmeal bread, banana bread, apple bread, black bean bread, jalepeno cheese bread, chocolate bread, peanut butter bread, and the list goes on.  I have by no means tried all of the recipes, but the ones I have tried have been good!

Baking now?  Apple oatmeal bread.

The Broken Hourglass: These are the people in your neighborhood

I thought this time I'd give you a couple of character sketches for today's entry. This may or may not become a regular practice.  Characters featured in the "neighborhood" posts are non-joinables of varying degrees of importance.  So, for today, here are two--one from inside the law, one from out.

When the world went mad on Wasteland Day, Zeriya kept her head. She also kept her people together, working to make sure they and their families had food and felt as safe as anyone could in the city. With their loyalty ensured, she was able to move in on the nearby, smaller gangs, taking them over one by one, parlaying a minor counterfeiting gang into a major power. Now she is the head of the largest gang in Mal Nassrin, the first Fey to reach such prominence.

She has two goals: To keep her new-found power and to be remembered.

You may need her help some day, so don't call her crazy.

And at the other end of the spectrum, there is:

Leonika had just recently been transferred to Mal Nassrin. Officially, it was a promotion.  Unofficially?  No one wants to go to Mal Nassrin. It's a dead end, a place where nothing ever happens, and the guard knows this. Leonika had just started working on the lax discipline she found at her new assignment when the Umbrella went up. Now, she has her hands full.

Morale is at an all-time low. The city council is not communicating. Half her troops are outside the of the barrier, and the other half have deserted or died in the chaos. She doesn't have much patience with interruptions, so choose your words with care.

A Note on the Enchanted Glass Audio Book

I know--I just read Enchanted Glass. But, I like being read to, and it was available at the library, so I listened.

1) Steven Crossley reads well.

2) There are two or three points where a couple of words get repeated. Not bad, but I noticed, so I'm mentioning it.

3) Like House of Many Ways, it is recorded as one gigantic track, in this case over 8 hours. This caused problems as I lost my place more than the usual number of times--twice because I wanted to listen to some of my music, twice because I plugged the device into the computer, and at least once more for no particular reason that I could figure.  My brother somewhat smugly informed me that on an iPod this wouldn't be a problem because there are markers in a track, but I neither have nor want such a creature. The book I'm listening to next has hour long tracks--still longer than I like. Should I complain when such wonders are available? I always wonder...

Overall, I enjoyed listening,and it is always best to have a familiar book playing while driving, so having just read it was helpful.

Note on the book as a whole: Much as I love it, the revelation about Aiden's real father is always a bit of a a disappointment.

Edit: I'm starting to think that the "super long audio track" problem with Enchanted Glass and House of Many Ways may be because I downloaded it from NetLibrary. NetLibrary seems to specialize in dumping books into one, huge track. Other sources may not do this, so you may be safe if you get it through another online library or purchase it.

Just because: On Brownies

Written a while back for a friend, and posted here... just because


In Praise of Brownies

You may want some berries
Topped with cream in a bowl,
But I'm sure you can see
That the brownie has soul.

Oh a good cake is fine,
It can almost compare
But I'm sure you'll agree
That the brownie has flair.

Oh a cookie is sweet,
And a muffin worthwhile,
But in the end you must see
That the brownie has style

Yes, cupcakes are good,
And peach pie is divine,
But if you're with me,
Then the brownie is mine!

by Jessica Greenlee

Doctor Who: The End of Time, a review

Finally watched The End of Time and am (after a slight delay) catching up on my Doctor Who reviews, bringing them up to date and to a close (unless and until I watch the Christmas Special or check out an old Doctor Who).  There are spoilers ahead and some quite thorough ranting, so be warned.

Short response: Ick. Ack. Ptooey. AAAUGGH!

I waited to see this until after I'd finished the fifth season, and I still don't know if that were wise or not. On the one hand, I had the assurance that there was a Doctor in my future and one that I like very much indeed. On the other, it was a crashing come down.

The specials have never been my favorite episodes, and this one is worse than most. The plot makes no sense and  utterly fails to cohere.  Part One: The Master is back! Don't ask how. It involves some sort of memory left on his wife's lips, some implausible planning on his part, some strange foresight on hers, makes even less sense than Who science usually does, and is silly without being amusing. Anyway, he's back, and he's suddenly super-powered, bouncing all over the place and shooting out sizzling bolts of lightning when the Doctor tries to chase him down.  And then the Master manages to replace every human except for Wilf and Donna with himself (Kind of, sort or replaces them--they all look like him & act like him, but they aren't thinking with a group mind and aren't quite him because they take orders from the central him and wouldn't if they were really him because he doesn't take orders and...I'm over-thinking this, aren't I?). Conveniently, there are two aliens-pretending-to-be-human hanging out in the self-same building, and they help the Doctor get away/work to foil the Master's Evil plans, even better: Donna is on the loose.

All of which promptly doesn't matter because by Part Two, Donna faints before she can do anything at all and it turns out that really, the story is about the Return of the Time Lords who were only mostly dead and not even a little bit nice.

They try to take over the universe, or maybe just the earth, and everyone is terribly interested in the Doctor's psychology to the point where both the Master and the Lord of the Time Lords (High Chancellor? President? Dictator? I forget) stand around discussing which of them he'll shoot rather than doing the sensible thing and hitting him over the head before proceeding with their respective evil schemes.  This gives the Doctor time to do something clever, foil the time lords, and let the Master slip away to scheme again another day.

After which, the Doctor thinks he's off the hook and doesn't have to die after all, but Wilf was stuck in a radioactive chamber and knocks four times to get someone to let him out (What would have happened if he'd stopped at three? Or gone ahead and rapped five times? He could've--he knew the prophecy--the Doctor specifically told him that bit), and the Doctor gives up his life to save Wilf, does a quick trip through time and space to see his friends and distribute a few final gifts (1). Then, having found out he could not live, he dies.

Have I pointed out yet that the plot of this particular Special makes no sense and  utterly fails to cohere? Just in case: The plot makes no sense and utterly fails to cohere. It's a self-indulgent bundle of "scenes" designed to be shocking and/or pathetic that often descends to bathos. Donna does nothing. Mystery lady who pops up to warn Wilf of unspecified things remains a mystery and is even more useless than the usual "mysterious figure with strange warnings." The Master's return is pointless, which is a pity; I like the Master, on the whole.

I also hate the "Obi Wan school of truth" more than I can say. All through the last several seasons, anyone who asked and a good many people who didn't were told, with no qualifications, that the Time Lords were dead. Really dead. All dead. All of them. Then, with no warning, it turns out that this was only true "from a certain point of view." Now what do I do when I rewatch Dalek? It's already been weakened by the infinite return of the Dalek race, but the thought that the Ninth Doctor really believed that his people had died to eliminate the Daleks still remained powerful. Now...we find out that the Time Lords were never really dead and were really just as bad or maybe worse than the Daleks and the Doctor knew both facts and has known them all along--that makes several of his statements all through the first four seasons strange and suspect, and makes me very unhappy.

Did this pair of shows have any redemptive features? Gotta say, the villains were pretty good. The Master's actions and plans make no sense whatsoever, but John Simm tears up the scenery wonderfully well and almost makes the silly superpowers work. And, of course, Timothy Dalton is an expert scene-chewer, and extremely good-looking to boot, so it was good to see the two of them on screen together, even though I kept wishing that the script was up to the actors' quality.

Liked the bits with Wilf, mostly, and I did enjoy seeing Donna again, though I wish she'd actually been allowed to do something.

Yeah, I think I've said enough about that particular episode.

Time, perhaps, to go rewatch The Lodger or maybe Vincent and the Doctor or maybe even Rose. I still like Rose. 

(1) I keep hearing Gonzo's voice saying, in true Christmas Carol style "And to Donna, who did not die..." whenever I think of the lottery ticket.

Five on Kirrin Island Again by Enid Blyton, a book review

The recent article in the Guardian, "Enid Blyton's Famous Five get 21st-century Makeover" and the subsequent discussion at Charlotte's Library left me feeling somewhat nostalgic for Blyton's Famous Five and Secret Seven.

They're a little hard to get hold of at local libraries, but I did find a copy of Five on Kirrin Island Again at the local library sale (for the grand total of 25 cents. Have I mentioned lately that I love libraries?) and happily settled down to enjoy it.

It's a straightforward adventure with clearly delineated good guys and bad guys, a sketchily detailed scientific invention that is impressively full of glass and wire, and a brisk pace that keeps the pages turning. Someone is threatening George's father, trying to steal his inventions. It is up to the Five to find out who, even though they are not supposed to go near the Island and the mysterious tower George's father has built.

Even though it has been years, the characters were still familiar: There is "Little Anne" hanging back timidly, George wishing she were a boy, Julian taking the lead, and Dick being the slightly hotheaded one. Actually, Anne was more adventurous than I recalled--I remember being irritated because George always had to wait behind with Anne; here, she is as involved as anyone.

I found the same qualities in the two books in the Adventure Series--The Island of Adventure and The Castle of Adventure I was able to put on hold at the library: There was a tomboy, a more "typical" girl (though Lucy-Ann seems more determined to get involved than Anne), two boys (Phillip and Jack; Phillip is the animal-lover, Jack's the one with a bird), and an engaging animal, Kiki the Cockatoo. There was also a briskly moving plot, just enough threat to keep the tension going, and a satisfactory happy ending.

There were moments of alienation, but these came neither through the language nor the gender, class, or race differences. They came from being an adult and stumbling over the casual way the Adventure kids were dumped with tutors, left their assigned guardian, and showed up elsewhere without anyone worrying. Suddenly, I was wanting to jump in and tell everyone to start paying attention to the kids. Ah well. No departure, no adventure. See also Vladamir Propp on the fairy tale. See any fairy tale. See most of Diana Wynne Jones. Having seen that, I tell myself, get back to the adventure.

I picked up an Agatha Christie, The Mystery of the Blue Train, at the same sale, and read it immediately afterward. The two share a distinct kinship: Just enough characterization to keep the plot going, and a heavy reliance on "types"(1)  (Christie makes a point of this in the Marple books). Both authors are light on their feet, moving quickly from point to point and relying on plot rather than character. Both also reflect their time period in their choice of word and, yes, gender relations. And, both are fun in small doses.


(1) The Unicorn and the Wasp may be one of my favorite Doctor Who episodes, and Christie may be an author I quite regularly return to, but I am not sure quite what the Doctor was thinking when he praised Christie's great and blinding insight into human nature. Perhaps she was deeply insightful, but if so, she kept it for her real life, not her books.

The Age of Wonder: The Romantic Generation and the Discovery of the Beauty and Terror of Science by Richard Holmes, a Book Review

I picked The Age of Wonder off of the library's new book shelf, thinking it looked interesting and I almost cite put it back down after a few pages.  I'm glad I didn't.


The book starts out slowly, informative but slow going. Then, about a third of the way through, as an American, Dr. John Jeffries, and a Frenchman, Jean-Pierre Blanchard, set out to be the first to cross the English Channel in a balloon, quarreling all the while, the book took off.  The people described stopped being "significant historical figures" and became people, and I started to care what they thought and how they acted.

As the somewhat clunky subtitle The Romantic Generation and the Discovery of the Beauty and Terror of Science indicates, Richard Harris is looking again at the development of science in the Romantic era, arguing that instead of being opposed to the arts it developed alongside them. Coleridge wrote scientific essays.  Humphry Davy wrote poetry which Coleridge read and criticized. The two were friends, and were far from the only pair to cross the "divide" between science and poetry. In fact, as Harris illustrates with numerous excerpts from poems and poets, there was no such divide. The poets saw science as wonderful, as poetic; the scientist wrote poems.

The Age of Wonder covers a wide spread of personalities and times, looking at geographic and theoretical exploration both. It is heavy reading at times, but overall, fascinating and well worth the time. It also pairs well with Empires of Light by Jill Jones and Electric Universe: The Shocking True Story of Electricity by David Bodanis, covering overlapping but not identical territory.

As I have fussed about illustrations in prior books, I will add that Age of Wonder has gorgeous full-color plates. They are not, strictly speaking, essential to the text, but I did enjoy getting a look at the people discussed.

The Broken Hourglass: Small Update

Hm. I keep planning a "proper post" on The Broken Hourglass and  ending up not making any post at all. Since many of my earlier posts are "improper," I shall revert to that mode for the moment.

The latest work on the game consisted of me coding an elegant series of exchanges between the PC and a group of NPCs, getting them all set up and feeling quite happy about them--and then realizing that they weren't going to work after all, since it relied on each NPC having one and one only of the 4 items being swapped, and under certain conditions, any given NPC might have two or more of said items, at which point, the player wouldn't be able to get at any of the extra items without bloodshed.

So, I grumpily went back in and started recoding. The original elegant exchange setup is still there, but I've added a whole tangle of additional code and some additional conversation and really ought to pull that original code out entirely, but it does work, and it took me so long to set it up in the first place that I'm stalling.

Such is the coding life.

Insectopedia by Hugh Raffles, a book review

Insectopedia is a collection of twenty-six cleverly titled(1),  alphabetical essays on people and insects--generally, on how people view insects.

It is ambitious in scope, covering many cultures, peoples, and disciplines--Raffles visits farmers in Africa to talk about locusts, reads books by ancient Chinese philosophers, and talks with artists about their work, to give a small sampling.

It's erudite, carefully-researched--stunningly researched, and thoughtful. It has plenty of chances to say those wonderful words "I never thought about that!" or "Listen to this!" It is, or ought to be, everything I want in a non-fiction book.

And yet... I can't quite bring myself to rave about it. It is a deserving book, but it isn't a book I want to pass onto my  friends insisting "You have got to read this!"

There are two flaws. In all of the careful, culturally aware, anthropologically sound text, Raffles left out the sense of wonder that surely, surely must have been there when he started(2). Wasn't there a moment in there, somewhere, where he said "Wow! That's amazing!" Wasn't he ever struck dumb by the beauty of an unknown bug? There is a striking absence of humor, too. Granted, global warming is not funny. The radiation-induced mutations described in "Chernobyl" aren't going to make people giggle (at least, I hope they are not!), but I, poor frivolous creature that I am, can't help but think that somewhere, somehow, he must have laughed in the course of working on those 26 essays. Would it have hurt to show some of the odd, awkward moments that must have occurred in those journeys? The moments of laughter or surprise?

A lesser lack comes in the illustrations. Rather than use the shrunken, photocopy-quality images embedded in the text, Raffles should have opted for no illustrations whatsoever.  Looking at an image of Cornelia Hesse-Honegger's paintings, this one purporting to be of mutated fruit fly eyes, I see only shapeless black blobs. This happens again, when Raffles is admiring Hoefnagel's sixteenth-century drawings describing the color, the shape, the points where real insect wings were used. There are recognizable shapes, this time, but they are broken, blurred, and I'd put them at less than a quarter of their original size. It would have been far better to stick to descriptions and not use such poor-quality reproductions.

If you're still curious after this reserved recommendation, take a look at google books. There are substantial chunks up for the cautious reader's perusal.


(1)Usually cleverly titled. I haven't quite forgiven him for titling the "W" essay  "The Sound of Global Warming." Surely that should have been "S" Or maybe, stretching things a bit, "G"? It's never a "W."


(2)I, at least, cannot imagine doing the staggering amount of work this book took without the sense that it was not only worth doing but wonderfully worth doing.

U.S. Open of Surfing--Crowds

I missed the weekend's surfing, but I did make it down in time to take a look at the crowds.

At the beginning of the week, no one ever believes me when I tell them the crowds will be really big by the end of the week.

Deep Secret by Diana Wynne Jones, a book review

Deep Secret was not a case of love at first sight. In fact, I remember hating it when I first read it, though I cannot now remember why. I reread it for the Diana Wynne Jones Week (Yes, I'm going a day over, but I started a day late, so it works out) since Jenny had recommended it, and enjoyed it.

The premise is that there are multiple parallel universes (a common occurrence in Diana Wynne Jones books) and a ruling body of Magids looks after keeping magic and law in order throughout the multiverses. Rupert Venables is one such magid and when his mentor dies, it is his job to find a replacement. Stan, his mentor, is allowed to return temporarily in disembodied form to help, but only in a limited fashion.  As Rupert investigates various possible candidates, Maree Mallory keeps turning up. She is one of the possibles, but Rupert dislikes her and almost immediately decides she cannot possibly be the replacement. In fact, when he sets up a magic working to draw the candidates together at a science fiction convention (Perfect, since magic users cannot act openly on our world and a SF convention is a great place to hid in plain sight), he works to exclude her.

She, in the meantime, is not worried about magic. Instead, she's trying to figure out where she will live and with what money after her (now ex) boyfriend has moved into their apartment with his new girlfriend. She's also having to deal with strange dreams about a disapproving woman who sits in a thorn bush and scolds her for her unladylike behavior. She is also planning on going to the science fiction convention, partly as moral support for her uncle, who is a guest of honor, and partly because her aunt and uncle, with whom she is staying, have decided she and her cousin, Nick, are not to be trusted alone in the house--wild parties will result.

Rupert is not pleased to see her, but he is preoccupied with the question of succession in a nearby empire and busy trying to choose the next Magid.

Likable elements: The characters. Rupert starts out seeming impossible, but turns out to be someone trying desperately to do the right thing--even if he thinks his bosses don't really want him saving the day this time. Maree is stubborn, independent, and determined. Nick constantly describes himself as selfish, but goes to a lot of trouble for his friends. Aunt Janine, the villain of the day, is truly terrible, and wonderful at once.

The multiple universe concept is always fun because it allows one to glimpse any number of places, though I think my favorite part is still the hotel itself--as someone who gets lost often and easily, I like the idea that sometimes places really are shifting around.

And I loved the way secrets are hidden in nursery rhymes; the Road to Babylon was perfect.

Didn't like: The science fiction convention. With everything else going on, the convention itself was a bit of a letdown. Who cares about fictional fantasy authors' descriptions of writing or the orgiastic activities of attendees when an empire is falling apart?

Stained glass alert: Uncle Ted has old stained glass windows that look into other dimensions (whether literally or not is never quite clear, and in any case irrelevant to the book).

For other reviews see Jenny's complaint about American bowdlerization, Jeanne's review over at Necromancy Never Pays, Christy's at A Good Stopping Point,  and Jane's at Teabag Central.

Eight Days of Luke by Diana Wynne Jones, a book review

Eight Days of Luke is one of my favorite books by Diana Wynne Jones, which is to say, it's one of my favorite books period.

It begins when David returns to his guardians after a successful school year. He is not particularly looking forward to seeing them, though he is looking forward to telling one of his uncles about the recent cricket match. On reaching the house, however, he finds that no one expects him at all. They have all been planning a holiday and meet his arrival with blank dismay. After being scolded one too many times for simply being around, David goes out and tries a curse, stringing together the nastiest-sounding words he can. To his surprise, a wall falls down after one string and a boy of about his own age appears. The boy, Luke, claims David has freed him from a terrible enchantment--something David does not believe--and he quickly becomes David's good friend.

Gradually, David realizes that Luke is not an ordinary boy, he's Loki, Norse god of mischief, and the other gods are out to recapture him. Friendship with Luke/Loki makes David offer to solve the gods' current crisis in order to keep him from being re-imprisoned. The trouble is, he only has a week to do it in, and he can only do it if he does not know what it is the gods are looking for.

Eight Days of Luke is, like Enchanted Glass, one of the books that is exactly the right length and has just enough and not too much detail. I have read it several times, savoring the different gods' appearances, watching how they fit into the ordinary world while remaining recognizable as the Norse pantheon, and enjoying the smoothness of the shift between worlds when David briefly visits Valhalla.

It also has a wonderful, bittersweet ending question.

This one is staying on my shelves, and I am not loaning out my copy, not to anyone!

For a slightly different take, check this review at The Book Coop. Jenny also discusses it briefly here in her roundup of DWJ books.

The Game by Diana Wynne Jones, a book review

The Game is one of Wynne Jones shorter, lighter books; enjoyable, and, in a roundabout way, revisiting some of the ideas in Eight Days of Luke, one of my favorite DWJ's.

It starts out with Hayley leaving the strict guardianship of her grandparents and heading off to meet a bewildering number of new cousins, aunts, and uncles in Ireland. Once there, she begins to relax after years of stern discipline and to enjoy playing games--including The Game, where she and her cousins all leave the ordinary earth and travel to the mythosphere. There, they meet gods, goddesses, and creatures of myth, sometimes in lighter form, sometimes in darker, more dangerous forms--the mythosphere seems to be in layers, with ordinary earth life at one level, fairy tales up at another, and the myths at yet another level, overlapping versions of the same tale happening at once.

Then she discovers that her uncle, who never has liked her, is angry that she's visited the Irish cousins and will be even more angry if he learns she's visited the mythosphere, and that, not so incidentally, he's really Jupiter, king of the gods, and if she doesn't stop him, she'll be in big trouble--Sisyphus-type trouble.

Drawback: The end of the book was a perfectly good fairy-tale ending, but somehow a bit of a letdown all the same. After all the buildup, it was a bit too easy to get rid of Uncle Jupiter.

Also, while I liked the idea of the mythosphere, though I can't quite wrap my mind around the way it works in a practical sort of way. How are all these individual people simultaneously present in all the levels?

The parts I liked best really were the human-sized parts; as with Eight Days of Luke, I enjoyed seeing what the gods and heroes looked like when they were being ordinary people, and spotting the ways their unique god-aspects showed up in human form. Baba Yaga was especially welcome, particularly her surprise when Hayley was glad to see her. The exception to the "mundane parts were best" rule is Hayley herself: I loved the bit where she discovers she is/can be a comet.

Stained Glass Alert: The shed in back of the cousins' house has old stained glass that makes the world look weird and wonderful. It doesn't play any role in the book, but Enchanted Glass and Deep Secrets have me on the alert.

For another review, see Charlotte's Library.

Year of the Griffin by Diana Wynne Jones, a book review

Year of the Griffin is a sequel to Dark Lord of Derkholm. Actually, it's more of a sequel than Diana Wynne Jones usually writes: It happens shortly after the events of Derkholm and features most of the same characters.

This time, however, the main character is Elda, one of Derk's griffin daughters. She has had better luck than Blade in persuading her father to send her to the university to study magic. There, she meets and befriends an oddly assorted group of freshmen--Lukin, crown prince of Luteria; Ruskin, a dwarven artisan; Claudia, sister of the Emperor of the South; Felim, brother of the Emir; and Olga, who is evidently rich but who will not say where she is from. All of these people, it turns out, are attending the school without permission, and both Claudia and Lukin have powerful jinxes that keep their magic from working right. The group quickly realizes that they are not being taught the magic they want and, soon, need, to know, so they form an informal study group to learn on their own, checking out books as needed from the magical library (and I want a library with a catalog like that).

The book is an enjoyable, light read, but not one of my favorites.

Partly, this is a matter of thwarted expectation: The first time I read it, I was disappointed to find that it was not as funny as Dark Lord of Derkholm--it really can't be, since that story has already been told, and the parody is over. Also, the book is more standard-issue than DWJ usually writes--leaving aside the magic, it's a fairly typical going-away-to college and beginning to grow up story--new friends, coffee, crushes on and quarrels with teachers, new love, pretty much what one expects from the genre (type? subset? What does one call a book-type that crosses the recognized genres?).

Of course, "leaving aside the magic" is a big leaving aside: The magic provides much of the book's fun as the students try new spells and casually vary the instructions to suit their equipment, using orange peels rather than chalk to form diagrams, for example, or building a pentagram of books instead of drawing it out--both of which have interesting results once the spells activate. And it is a delight to see Blade and Kit acting together as a trained team and to take a quick look to find out how Calette and Don are doing.

Do I recommend it? Of course. It's by Diana Wynne Jones, isn't it? Do I think it's her best? Nope.

For other views, see this review at Jenny's Books.

Enchanted Glass by Diana Wynne Jones, a book review

Yes, I'm reviewing Enchanted Glass a second time. I used Diana Wynne Jones Week as an excuse to read it again; not that I really need excuses to reread books I like, and this one is fast moving up in the ranks.

Basic summary: Andrew Hope inherits his grandfather's house and finds that, with it, he has inherited something called a "field of care" and that he had better relearn all the magic his grandfather taught him and which he has largely forgotten on the grounds that rational people do not believe in magic. He sorts this out while trying to protect Aiden Cain, a twelve year old boy who shows up on his doorstep claiming to be hunted by strange beings that most other people cannot see. At the same time, he's trying hard to get his computer to work (difficult due to magic surges, which seem to mess with its circuitry) so that he can write a book outlining his theory of history.

I liked this book the first time I read it, and liked it even more the second. One reason is that it is simply a beautifully written book, one of those rare books where everything seems to fit exactly as it ought, and there's no sense that perhaps it would have been better if the author had just added a little more, or left just a few bits out.

I also appreciate the way Wynne Jones has an adult protagonist and a pre-teen protagonist and lets them be friends with each other without either one condescending to the other or the reader; Aiden is twelve, Andrew is an adult, they are both happy to be who and what they are and can still chat happily about kinds of magic, meeting giants, and dealing with the incursions of an angry neighbor.

It pleases me to no end that Andrew never stops wanting to write his book. There are any number of stories out there--some of them quite good ones--where the protagonist has settled for some humdrum existence from which he or she must be rescued by the power and danger of a previously forgotten magic. In this one, there is no sense that Andrew "settled" for his academic career. He valued his studies; he still does value them, and the return of magic to his life is an additional study and interest, and, occasionally, irritation. It doesn't eliminate all the work he's been doing in the intervening years.

For another review, look here at Villa Negativa. There is also one up here at Book Aunt.

U S Open of Surfing Day 4

 

 

 

 

Dark Lord of Derkholm by Diana Wynne Jones, a book review

Dark Lord of Derkholm is just plain fun. It is a parody but, like all good literary parodies, is a story in its own right.

Mara builds miniature universes; Derk would really like to be left to himself to quietly breed bizarre animals and grow unusual crops. Their children, both human and griffin, are busy with their own plans.  Blade, the eldest human boy, badly wants to go to the university to learn magic and is quarreling with Derk, who has forbidden him to go. Kit, the eldest griffin son, also has a strong magic talent that needs training. Shona, the eldest daughter is planning on heading off to school to be a bard. Unfortunately, their world is being run by Mr. Chesney, a man from another world who sends tours in once a year; the tourists all come from Chesney's world and have been primed to expect a "typical" magic world, full of wizards (with beards), a Dark Lord and his Evil Minions, and assorted other fantasy cliches, all of which Chesney insists the inhabitants of Derk's world provide. In exasperation, the leading wizards of the world turn to the gods, asking what to do to get their world back. The oracles instruct them to appoint Derk as the next Dark Lord and Blade as one of the wizard guides. So much for everyone's plans.  Things get even more complicated when Derk is injured and his children have to take over his Dark Lord duties--Mara is too busy being the year's Glamorous Enchantress to help--and all the while they are all trying to figure out how to stop the tours.

What makes it a favorite? For one thing, it's funny. DWJ plays with the familiar fantasy tropes, turning them inside out and upside down, showing just how stressful being the Dark Lord is--especially when you have to let multiple tour parties kill you every day. Plus, there's all the devastation caused by the rampaging hoards of good and evil and the resulting cost of rebuilding.

Then, as I said, it is a good story: Blade's struggles to learn magic without university help, Kit's difficulties with being a griffin and a magic user, Shona's bardic ambitions, and all the difficulties of sibling rivalry and love are mixed up together with meeting dragons, saving kingdoms, and talking with gods.

Oh, and it has griffins in it. Did I mention that?

Drawback: There are times when the story does drag; it is one of DWJ's books, and mostly, it's a fast fun read, but every now and again, I look up and notice "My, there are a lot of pages to this."

Overall: Recommend it. On the DWJ scale, I'd place it between Witch Week (probably my least favorite, though still fun) and Howl's Moving Castle/Enchanted Glass/House of Many Ways (current favorites among her works).

For another look at this book, look here at Jenny's Books.

Stay tuned for more reviews in the Diana Wynne Jones Week! By the way, there's a sort of an ongoing list of reviews in the comments section here, though possibly Jenny will sort them out into a proper list sometime.

Edit: Jenny not only listed the reviews, she provided a short summary of each.

House of Many Ways by Diana Wynne Jones, book review

Eeep! Is it Diana Wynne Jones Week already? Here I've been happily using the week as an excuse to devour her books, and promising myself I'd get around to writing reviews "soon"--after I finish this next book, that is, or the next--I checked out a whole pile of books from the library, and then there are my own. I think I was trying to work my way through the entire oeuvre, though there was little chance of that--she's written a lot of books, and I keep discovering books or short stories I've never even heard of(1), and the books keep on going out of print and being hard to track down.

Anyway, I'll start with the one I just finished rereading, House of Many Ways. Charmain Baker is co opted by her great aunt into looking after her great uncle William's house while he is away. Charmain, while not happy with working as a housekeeper, is glad of the freedom and takes advantage of the opportunity to take a job as an assistant librarian at the castle. Charmain is interested to discover that her uncle is a wizard, and promptly tries some of the spells temptingly displayed in a book on his desk. She also runs afoul of a local monster and is dismayed to find that her uncle was expecting an apprentice, who shows up early on and is dismayingly determined to actually get the house clean while trying out his own, invariably skewed, spells. Meanwhile, the princess has called on Sophie Pendragon(2) for help finding the castle's disappearing treasure.

Charmain endeared herself to me immediately by her response to emergencies: Grab the nearest book and start reading. She's also curious and, despite a lack of training or interest in the mundane matters of housekeeping (which I liked about her, too), is very practical when it comes to figuring out how to get things done (once she's had her chance to read, that is). Waif, the dog her uncle had adopted just before Charmain's arrival, is an engaging creature and I could easily see how Charmain got so fond of her. I also enjoyed the prickly friendship she and Peter struck up.

I also appreciated the low-key nature of the threat: It was genuine, and the kingdom needed help in defeating the monster, but there was never a sense of this being a Quest that Peter and Charmain were destined to fulfill. Instead, much of the focus was on exploring the "many ways" of the house--its extensions into other times and places--trying new spells, Peter learning to cook, Charmain working in the castle, Peter and Charmain quarreling over doing the laundry, and the other small details of day to day life in a magic kingdom.

And, of course, it was good to see Sophie, Howl, and Calcifer again.

Edit to add: This time through, I downloaded it from the library's audio book site (I love libraries, have I said that before?). I am delighted that some of DWJ's books are available on audio books, and I thought Jenny Sterlin did a good job of reading it, but I was puzzled by the publisher's decision to put the almost eight-hours worth of reading onto a single, huge track. If I lost my place for one reason or another (like wanting to listen to music for a while), I had to fast forward for quite some time to get it back. Not a good setup. Enchanted Glass appears to be single-track as well. Puzzling.


Edit: I'm starting to think that the "super long audio track" problem with Enchanted Glass and House of Many Ways may be because I downloaded it from NetLibrary. NetLibrary seems to specialize in dumping books into one, huge track. Other sources may not do this, so you may be safe if you get it through another online library or purchase it.

(1)Witch's Business, for example. I never knew about it until reading a review in We Be Reading. Or Changeover, about which I know absolutely nothing beyond the fact that it's on the list I linked to up there.

(2) Yes, that Sophie, for those of you who have read Howl's Moving Castle. Howl and Calcifer also show up. If you've read Howl's Moving Castle, meeting them again is a delight. If you haven't, it's not necessary for enjoying this book (Though, really, you should go read Howl's Moving Castle at some point).  I'm not sure, incidentally, where this fits in relation to Castle in the Air. I remember there being some minor contradictions.

U.S. Open of Surfing Day Four

 

Overheard from many mommies and daddies out walking with their little two and three year old girls: "Look, Honey, there are girls out there surfing!" Occasionally, one or the other would add: "Will you do that, when you get bigger?"

More Surfing

From after the day's competition ended yesterday: