West of Mars\' Rocks \'n Reads

Now, the idea of Women on Wednesday is to talk up an author whose books you really like. Or one book, singly.

I still like that idea. In fact, by including Rachel Caine, I’d like to open a discussion among you guys.

Here’s my problem:

I started reading the Weather Warden series years ago. I loved the first three, had issues with the fourth, and spent the fifth and (last week) the sixth thinking, “This is really stupid.”

I’m not going to continue on with the series.

If you have, tell me WHY. What is it you like as the world falls apart, as people still refuse to tell Joanne what she needs to know, and as Joanne still refuses to ask for information.

Yep, it’s the lack of Joanne’s growth that’s bothering me the most. So many of these situations that I view as stupid may not exist (like the whole Murder of the Cop storyline) if only Joanne would be proactive and thoughtful. For once.

So… talk to me. I still maintain that the premise behind this series is incredible. It’s fresh, it’s cool, it’s intriguing.

But… I just am not a fan of where it’s gone.

When Bill Flanagan’s A&R first crossed my radar, I knew I had to read it. Even though it’s copyrighted 2000 and well past the date at which I knew I wasn’t going to realize my (short-lived) dream of being an A&R chick, I still needed to read this book.

It took awhile to get my hands on it. Years. And then it took years more for me to pull it out of the depths of my famed TBR mountain range and actually read it.
Once I did, however, I absolutely adored it.

Now, let me say that the music industry depicted in A&R doesn’t resemble the industry I’d gotten to know in the early 1990s, the industry I almost went to work for. That doesn’t mean it’s not real. In fact, this book resonates with truth. It’s that I was aiming for smaller labels, folks who don’t play on this scale. I’d have been sheltered from a lot of this — I hope.

And yet, there probably is no shelter. People like Booth and DeGaul and even protagonist (and naif) Jim Cantone can be found anywhere. This both widens the book’s appeal beyond us music biz junkies and takes away a lot of the glamour that we think of when we think about the music business.

The glamour is, in fact, kept to a minimum. Yep, there’s exotic travels that Jim gets dragged along on, but there’s also violence. Real violence. There’s sex — and quite bit consequences that go along with it. It’s a strength of this book that Jim can see all of this first-hand and retain his core values and focus, even as he realizes the hard truths of what your wardrobe says about you, and what it means to conform. Yes, conform. Even in the famously non-conformist music industry, you’ve got to find a way to fit in if you want to advance.

It’s a sad lesson, but then again, so are many of the lessons that Jim learns as the book unfolds. It may be rock and roll, but in this case, we’re not so sure we like it.
Uhh… we’re not so sure we like this world of rock and roll. The book? We loved.

Stupid disclaimer garbage: Book obtained from a retail store somewhere ’cause it’s about rock and roll. Of COURSE I wanted to read it.

I woke up this morning to the news that my good friend Leah Braemel’s book, Private Property, was #97 on the Kindle best-seller list.

Pretty darn awesome.

If you haven’t checked out Leah’s books, I believe you have to do it digitally. It’s worth it, though. Or… what I’ve read so far is. (Yup, I’m behind in my digital books as well as print!)

I’m actually too busy celebrating Hanukkah to think about books. For once.

We’ll resume next week, with a super-duper woman to feature.

If you’ve got a Women on Wednesday post, by all means, link up. Go visit. Spread the word.

Whoa. Nothing like being a week and a half late to announce the winner for our Sandy Blair book. I guess I was hoping more folk would drop in to enter.

But the winner is Dawn M! She doesn’t have a blog for me to link to. I’m sad about that.

Look for an e-mail from me now, Dawn.

I got word of this a day or two ago, but now that it’s official, I can tell you all.

My local indie bookstore was awarded the prestigious Raven award by the Mystery Lovers of America.

Here’s the letter from the Mystery Lovers Bookshop:

We are pleased as punch to announce that Mystery Lovers Bookshop will receive the 2010 Raven Award from the Mystery Writers of America in recognition of our contribution to the world of mystery writing. The award is a tribute to our extensive program of author events and most especially The Festival of Mystery, entering its 15th year in 2010.

We want to extend our heartfelt thanks to our staff and our customers for making it possible for us to win this award. And, of course, a special tip of the hat to the hundreds of authors who have visited us and helped to promote our store to the mystery-writing community. You know who you are.

‘Nuff said right there. Except… you know you can order online through them, right? And not just mysteries, either! (Trust me. I’m the queen of this.)

I hope this means you’ll all be able to join me at this year’s Little Festival of Mystery. My kids are old enough now; I’m hoping to volunteer my time at last.

Not sure what WOW is? It’s Women on Wednesday, a very new bookish meme that encourages you to take one day and write a post of some sort (even a review) about a woman author or a book written by a woman author. (Although… isn’t that redundant? Of course a book was written by an author. After all, even a scientist who writes a book becomes an author.) So read on, leave the link of YOUR post in the comments section, and go visit and make some new book-loving friends!

Local-to-me author Kathleen George (who’s a professor at that school that started me on my writing journey for real. And was brave enough to hand me a BA) is my featured Women on Wednesday author today. I chose Kathy because her latest novel, The Odds, was picked as one of Library Journal’s Top 5 mysteries. And since we share a writer’s group, she was handy to feature.

Kathy’s pretty blog-phobic. I think she’s one of those people who walk past a computer and hear it go BOOM! — and not in a good way. But she was willing to send me a list of what she’s been reading lately. While there are some men on this list, remember, the attention they’re getting is secondary to the notice Kathy ought to be getting. This is all about Kathy, after all.

So here ya go: What one author (who just HAPPENS to have a book on Library Journal’s Top 5 Best Mysteries of 2009) is reading:

A Gate at the Stairs—Lorrie Moore I always like her. I don’t think this is her absolute best, but her second best is still pretty good. This one is a bit mannered.

Coast of Good Intentions—Michael Byers He’s awfully good.

Home—Marilynne Robinson This is a painful book that sticks. Really painful but well done.

A Thousand Cuts—Simon Lelic About a mass killing being the result of bullying—I blurbed it. Then the Fort Hood thing happened. Eerie.

Await Your Reply—Dan Chaon This book wins all kinds of awards and of course it’s very skillful, but it didn’t grab me. It felt like an intellectual exercise.

The Confessions of Edward Day—Valerie Martin This is the first VM I have read and I plan to read her other works. She’s a super-smart writer. This one is set in the theatre scene in NY in 1970’s.

The Maltese Falcon—Dashiell Hammett I read this (and re-watched the 40s film) because I was speaking at the New Orleans Pirate’s Alley Faulkner Festival and this was the Big Read or reference point. Hammett certainly did start a whole genre.

Spooner–—Pete Dexter This is a lovely novel and deserves the honors it is getting.

13 ½ –Nevada Barr I read her because she was on two panels with me in New Orleans. She is a very popular writer I just didn’t know before. She plots tons of tension in her works and she is smart. And pretty and funny, too.

Museum of Innocence—Orham Pamuk I am listening to all 20 hours on audio. It’s good. It’s about obsession. It’s about a loooooonn obsession.

Anna in Between—Elizabeth Nunez This was good but needed some cuts. Several cuts. I kept editing as I read.

The Position—Meg Wolitzer Just met her. She is wonderful and very funny and her work is extremely witty. She is very popular in the literary set. This book is about sex.

***
So there ya go. I can’t endorse any of these books, as I haven’t read a single one of them. And, of course, I’m so behind in my reading that I haven’t read The Odds yet, either. Beat me to it and rub my nose in what a great read I’m missing, will ya?

The premise sounds perfect, doesn’t it?

Rosetta Mulligan, seventies rock-chick, fashion icon and friend to the stars has never fully embraced her role as mother to her four sons…. Rosetta now feels the time is right to parcel up her past and move on — but not until she has written her revelations of life on the road.

That’s the back cover copy on Victoria Routledge’s Swan Song.

I didn’t warm up to this one and quit after 54 pages. Or maybe it was during page 54; I’m not sure which.

There are some who’ll say you should give a book 25 pages before you decide to chuck it. Some say 50. Others say 10% — which in this case is 51 pages.

Either way, I failed to be sucked in by Rosetta, who is nasty and calculating, and her boys, who are bland and hard to tell apart.

That’s another problem with the first 54 pages. Telling. Ugh. Even the scenes — the action, the people who are moving and doing, not merely thinking — are told, not shown. This book lacked life — or did in the first 54 pages.

I’m disappointed — and I’d love to hear from someone who had a totally different take on this. What am I missing?

**
Stupid FTC garbage: I got this book through BookCrossing ’cause it sounded good. Nothing was expected of me in return, although I did write a journal entry. This here review, such as it is, is entirely self-motivated. And disappointing; I really want to read every book I like.

My copy’s still here, so if you’d like to take a gander at it, holler and I’ll send it out. If more than one of you are willing, I’ll draw a name randomly.

Send me the permalink to your own review, or ask nicely and I’ll post it here, too. Agree, disagree, or call me a freak; I’ll post it, or to it.

Yeah, I’ll start posting more than Women on Wednesday posts. It was a holiday; time to unplug.

If you’re new around here, the deal is that Women on Wednesday is our time to appreciate each other. If you’ve written a post featuring a woman author or merely one book that’s been written by a woman, leave your link in the comments and go see what everyone else is talking about. Even if you’ve written your post for another reason (another meme, or to complete a reading challenge), it still counts.

It’s all about getting exposure to women authors.

It fits nicely with this week’s pick of mine. You see, when I was at the Romantic Times Convention in 2008, author Sandy Blair walked up to me. She was looking for readers to give a copy of her book, A Highlander for Christmas, to.

She’d run out of readers. Couldn’t find any. And she was about to leave. She didn’t want to lug her book home with her.

I volunteered to take it, with the promise that I’d give it away on my blog. Except… my desk ate it. My desk eats lots of things. It ate the cat once, but I guess cats don’t taste good, and it spit the cat back out.

It spit Sandy Blair’s book back out, too. I guess it read it and decided to share it with the world. Best of all, my desk took GREAT care of the book. It still looks unread. The shiny gold sticker that says “autographed copy” on the cover is still shiny and perfect.

And now, way too long after the fact, A Highlander for Christmas is headed for a new home. Leave a link to your own WOW post and you can be entered into a drawing, which I’ll do next Tuesday the 8th of December. Be sure to leave your e-mail address with your comment.

If you can’t do a WOW post, then leave your name and e-mail anyway.

Since I feel bad that my desk spent so long hiding this from me, I’ll make this an international give.