New Year’s Reading

If you’ve been following my reading via this blog or GoodReads, you know I’ve been impressed regularly with Tana French’s mysteries. I particularly liked The Likeness but all her books (which also include In The Woods and Faithful Place) have been hits in my book. Broken Harbor was one of the first books I bought on my new Kindle (Christmas gift from Todd), and I just finished it the other night. It’s not my favorite book of hers, but it certainly kept me turning the pages (or tapping the screen, as it were).

I think the biggest disappointment was that I just didn’t care about the protagonist as much as I wanted to. French’s books each feature a different detective on the Dublin Murder Squad; when the protagonist is someone I feel is fully developed and interesting (as was the case with Cassie Maddox in The Likeness) the book is particularly wonderful. When she’s at her best, French’s books are very character driven and emotionally rich—not always easy to accomplish with mysteries, which naturally rely so much on plot. Mike “Scorcher” Kennedy, the heart of Broken Harbor, just never felt as immediate or real to me. I’m growing weary of the plot device of giving the central detective a horribly traumatic childhood incident (which is now the case in three out of four of French’s protagonists), and Kennedy just doesn’t live up to previous characters French as created.

The book is still a good read, and anyone who is (A) a bit more forgiving than I am or (B) reading these out of sequence might not feel the same frustration I did. After all, the book stands up well on its own. I just know how much more emotion French can get out of me with a different protagonist and a little more heart. I’ll still look forward to her next mystery and hope that at some point she brings Cassie Maddox back to the forefront.

Revising

Laura, Tina, and I all finished NaNoWriMo back in November, which I think was a huge, awesome, celebration-worthy accomplishment. Unfortunately, I didn’t write a great novel back in November—just one that met the length requirement. Now the mess that is my manuscript is staring me full in the face as I try to edit. The goal: to have a ready-to-share manuscript by January 31. We’re more than half way through the month and I’m only a third of the way through the manuscript. And even that is being generous. I’m mostly doing line editing to make it more readable and to add transitions (I chose to write completely out of sequence, which I’ll never do again). In rereading, I’m discovering lots of places where I need to add scenes or write new sections. For the most part, I haven’t even begun to tackle those needs—I’m just making notes in the margins to make it easier to know what to come back to later.

The downside is that I won’t have something ready at the end of January. The upside is that I just realized I have Martin Luther King, Jr. Day off on Monday, so with the gift of time I’m hoping to make some good headway. Wish me luck!

Jazz

Last night Todd took me to see the Preservation Hall Jazz Band at the McKittrick. I loved it! I don’t know much about jazz, but being with Todd has exposed me to it more, and I’ve really started to love it. The show last night was absolutely amazing—so good that I want to say it’s the best music performance I’ve been to in my life. Part of it was the venue. The McKittrick is fabulous. Much of the old hotel is now in use for Sleep No More (which everyone who has a chance should go and see), but we were in an adjacent part of the building for last night’s performance. Like the Sleep No More space, the venue makes you feel like you’ve traveled back in time to the ’20s. Every detail is attended to. The band itself was incredible—picking up where each other left off, playing each song with energy and enthusiasm. We had such a good time that we spent the hour right after the show talking about taking a vacation to New Orleans where we’d do nothing but sleep late, get up for a late breakfast of beignets and chicory coffee, and then spend our nights seeing jazz around the city.

 

Hello, 2013!

Happy New Year! Between winning NaNoWriMo in November and hosting the holidays up in the Poconos, 2012 went out with a bang! We did the Christmas razzle dazzle twice: we had Todd’s family (parents, sister, aunt, and the kids) for actual holiday. My family and Todd’s cousins came the weekend after and we did the whole show again (stockings, presents under the tree, endless eating). We did it that way because my family had scheduling issues, but it worked out for the best. His immediate family is extremely nice to me, but as you know they are very conservative and very religious. My family is, to say the least, neither of those things. And both families are pretty outspoken about their beliefs. It is all too easy to imagine someone on either side of the family saying something heartfelt but completely lacking in tact or understanding that not everyone at the table shares the same beliefs. There would have been a brawl over Christmas dinner if everyone had been there at once! It was kind of a lot of work to do it twice (I was sick of washing dishes by the end), but I loved hosting.

We also got and gave some awesome gifts all around. Todd got me a Kindle Paperwhite, which makes me happy and makes him smug. I resisted e-readers for so long with great passion, and all along Todd predicted that I’d want one eventually. He was proven right, and I’ve really liked the Kindle so far. I love that it glows, because I often read in bed after Todd’s fallen asleep. And giant books are no longer a pain in the ass on the subway. Of course, I also got lots of awesome print books for Christmas, so I’ll certainly bounce back and forth between the old and new medium. My favorite thing that I got Todd was a gift certificate to do a six-session storytelling workshop at The Story Studio. He’s a natural storyteller, and I think he’s going to have a lot of fun with the class.

Lovey dovey at Christmas

We rang in the New Year in a very low key fashion. We spent it up at the house with my mom and Todd’s cousins, who we adore. We drank champagne, counted down to midnight, and sang Auld Lang Syne together. I pooped out not long after midnight (no partying ’till 5 a.m. for me), but it was lovely. I’m glad the first week back at work was only three days, as I’m missing vacation. In between catching up on emails and trying to remember the status of my projects, I’m mulling over what I want 2013 to be like. I’m resisting the word “resolutions,” and am focusing on positive things that I want to do rather than what I want to give up (though, in typical fashion, I do plan to give up eating 20 cookies a day and will try to lose at least 10 pounds before my sister’s wedding in March). To that end, Todd and I are trying to make four things happen each month:

1. Some kind of musical outing. Todd loves concerts and music. I’m happy to go along, but because it’s not my passion we haven’t done that much of it over the years. We’re seeing the Preservation Hall Jazz Band on Monday, which we’re both really excited about. Todd loves the band, and I’m eager to see more jazz, which I like a lot but don’t know very well.
2. Some kind of theater outing. You all know I love theater. We haven’t seen nearly as much together as I used to see on my own, and we’re going to try to take better advantage of my TDF membership together.
3. A friends date. There are too many friends that we just don’t see regularly, so we’re going to try to have dinner or something with friends at least once a month.
4. NYC exploration. I’m a homebody by nature, and I’m turning Todd into one, too. But there is a huge and amazing city for us to be a part of, so we want to break out of our ‘hood and habits more. And we have a car which is now parked only one block away from us! There is no reason we can’t venture to the outer boroughs more and really enjoy New York City.

There’s a lot of room for overalp between these four goals, and I’m sure there will be months when not all of them happen. But I’m excited to try, as I think all of them have the potential to be amazingly fun. My other goal for the beginning of the year is to edit the manuscript I wrote in November. I worked on it yesterday and this morning for the first time in a month, and I’m excited by it. I idiotically wrote the whole thing out of sequence, so there is a lot of reorganization to do and transitions to write, but I think the final product will be something I can be proud of.

What does 2013 have in store for all of you?

NaNoWriMo Winner!

It’s been silent here on the blog front throughout November, but I have been writing up a storm elsewhere. Along with Laura and Tina, I did NaNoWriMo this year, and tonight I passed the 50,000 word mark, which officially makes me a winner!

Read Round-Up (blah edition)

I haven’t done a reading round up in a while, and the sad fact is that this one won’t be particularly great. A couple of these books entertained, but none will go down in history as my favorites.

The Somnambulist
Jonathan Barnes

Bleh. This book just did nothing for me. I liked the premise, which sounded mysterious and spooky, but in reality I just didn’t care much about the characters or, in the end, what happened to them. Luckily I bought it for only a couple of dollars at the church thrift store on 96th Street. Once I was done with it I left it in the take-a-book, leave-a-book section of the ski lodge up by the house. I hope someone else will like it more than I did.

I’d Know You Anywhere
Laura Lippman

Josh recommended this book to me, and it’s probably my favorite of the four listed here. I’ve been all about the mysteries lately (I feel like my reading habits are becoming more and more like a retired lady’s), and when he talked this one up I did the thing that Amazon loves — two clicks on an app later, the book was on its way to me. It’s dangerously easy to buy stuff today. Anyway, the book was definitely entertaining. It’s not great literature, but it captivates all the way through.

The Crossing Places
Elly Griffiths

I read this one on a recommendation, too, sort of. My sister’s mother-in-law and I are friends on Goodreads, and we tend to like a lot of the same books. She raved about The Crossing Places, so I thought I’d give it a try. I didn’t think the writing was particularly fantastic, so it took me a while to get into, but I did find the protagonist more than a little endearing, so I’m glad I stuck with it. This is the first in a series, and I’m not sure if I’ll read more. I think if I came across them used or discounted I would, but there are a lot of other things I’d pay full price for first.

Witches On the Road Tonight
Sheri Holman

I attended a friend’s reading at Greenlights Books in Brooklyn a few months ago (ok, I was so late that I missed his reading, but I was there for chit chat, wine, and cheese) and got sucked into the “in bookstore, must buy book” mentality. I asked the proprietor for her favorite recent read, and she pointed me to a pile of Sheri Holman. I don’t actually think this was really her favorite, but I was asking for an on-the-spot answer, and she had a bit table of Holman’s work that she was promoting and just shoved me toward it. Still, I figured if it was good enough to warrant a featured spot, I’d give it a shot. It’s undoubtedly the objectively best literature of the four books here, and there were aspects that I found very effective. But, in the end, the book as a whole just wasn’t up my alley. I stuck with it and am glad I read it, but I’m not rushing for more Holman.

Autumn Hike

Fall is my favorite time of year. I love the cool, crisp weather and the colorfulness of the foliage. We had the kids with us this weekend and all went out for a couple of hours of hiking just over the Delaware on the NY side of our area. It was beautiful! I snapped lots of pictures along the way, a few of which will give you a taste of the views we had.