Great read:

I've just finished Kristin Cashore's Graceling and thoroughly enjoyed it. It was very Game-of-Thrones-esque, which is probably why it appealed to me. Don't let the YA label fool you or dissuade you from picking up this book - I didn't find it simplistic or too vanilla at all. In fact, on this lazy day in April, with raindrops splattering against the windows, and a fuzzy throw snugged around my legs to ward off the stubborn hold of winter, it was the perfect way to spend the afternoon.

I haven't updated my reading list, here, but I've been busy reading nonetheless. Unfortunately, most of my forays into the genre world were more ho-hum than not:

* Red Mist by Patricia Cornwell
* The Drop by Michael Connelly
* The Litigators by John Grisham
* The First Prophet by Kay Hooper

Of these, the only one I really enjoyed was The Drop.

On the literary front, I read a fantastic story published in One Story: E. B. Lyndon's "Goodbye, Bear."

Good read:

I've just finished Malcolm R. Campbell's The Sun Singer and I really enjoyed it. It's the story of Robert Adams, a high school-aged boy, and his gift of precognitive dreams. Although he foresees the tragic death of his best friend's sister, he's unable to prevent it and so he shoves his ability aside, refusing to engage it. When his grandfather dies unexpectedly, Robert resurrects his gifts in order to complete a task left undone by his beloved grandfather. The story has parallel universes, portals, synchronicity, and magic -- all deliciously woven together.

The book's back cover contains this label: Contemporary Mythic Adventure. I quite agree.

Although I really enjoyed the story, I feel like I have to say a few words about the beginning chapter. I found it awkward, choppy, amateurish, filled with grammatical errors, and full of one-dimensional characters (of which only two get filled out by story's end). There's also this weird script/layout that occurs on page one and shows up periodically throughout the book, where the prose divides into two columns and the text on the left continues in the standard typeface while the text in the right column is italicized. The intent, I believe, is to showcase, simultaneously, two opposing thoughts/reactions of/by one character to a given situation. The result, in my opinion, is so confusing and odd that it does more harm than good. The whole of this chapter was so off-putting that had the story not gotten pretty quickly to the good stuff, i.e., parallel universe, I would've abandoned the read. And speaking of the "good stuff," I found that although the lack of proof reading was still evident (thought instead of though, then instead of than, etc.), there wasn't any of the awkwardness in phrasing or abrupt switching from one speaker to the next that characterized much of the opening chapter. It was very smooth and very engaging, which makes me think Mr. Campbell was really in his element while composing this part of the story. The downside is that it highlights just how disintegrated the opening chapter is with the rest of the book; it makes it feel like an afterthought.

Great read:

I've just finished Patrick Rothfuss' The Name of the Wind and I really, really enjoyed it.

First, though, I feel like I ought to get some credit toward my Goodreads 2013 reading challenge for reading a 722 page novel (yes! 722 pages!), that instead of 1 book, it should count as at least 2, maybe even 3. I'm kidding. Sort of.

The 722 pages go by quickly. This is fantasy, and the fact that I enjoy fantasy is only a recent revelation to me (see my discovery, here). The world Mr. Rothfuss creates is amazing -- rich and believable and all encompassing. The likeability of the protagonist Kvothe (pronounced "Quothe") is astounding as well: we root for him and believe in him. And the scene where he ends up on his own is one of the best I've had to pleasure to read. It was haunting; utterly surprising and shocking, it and its immediate aftermath has stayed with me.

I have only 2 small quibbles with this story. The first is when it switches from the present time and assumes a "let me tell you what happened" tone. This is how the entire story is told, actually, where Kvothe recounts his life's events to Chronicler, who is busy copying the oral into written form. And, really, Rothfuss does such a marvelous job in drawing us into young Kvothe's world that we very quickly switch gears and are absorbed into the unfolding scene and story. My reaction stems from the intrigue that surrounds the older Kvothe and his situation at the book's beginning, that I didn't want to leave it to start over as it were. My slight irritation was short-lived, though.

My other quibble has to do with the ending. It feels like it just sort of ends. On the one hand, the story was already 722 pages long, so, really, it was time! On the other hand, I wanted a bit more of something... resolution, closure. Instead, it feels very open-ended, very much like a pause, and I'm guessing that the 2nd in the series, The Wise Man's Fear will pick up seamlessly where this one leaves off. But this just stopping, if you will, left me slightly unsatisfied and is only a very small notch against a fantastically fabulous read.

Great read:

I finished Anne Leigh Parrish's collection All The Roads That Lead From Home at the end of December, right before the new year started. And what a way to end the year. I loved these stories. Quiet, honest, powerful. They all have a low key sort of quality to them that is deceptive... the characters and their stories wind their way around your heart and through your mind, staying with you long after you've put the book down. Immensely satisfying.

Counting Proper

My short story Counting Proper is live at Blue Lake Review. It appeared originally in the May 2009 issue of Bryant Literary Review.

Happy New Year!

Disappointing Read

The title of this post should be flat out didn't like it because that's more honest. But since this is my first ever post about a book I didn't like, or, let's be real -- I didn't even finish -- I'm taking a gentler approach. The book? Jo Walton's Among Others. The premise is intriguing (from the inside book cover):

"Raised by a half mad mother who dabbled in magic, Morwenna Phelps found refuge in two worlds. As a child growing up in Wales she played among the spirits who made their homes in industrial ruins. But her mind found freedom in the science fiction novels that were her closest companions. When her mother tried to bend the spirits to dark ends, Mori was forced to confront her in a magical battle that left her crippled--and her twin sister dead."

Sounds exciting, doesn't it? A little magic, fairy spirits, a spell gone bad, hints at sci-fi. Who WOULDN'T by intrigued? The reality is that I had to invoke my daughter's 50-page rule and even then I made it only to page 75 before giving up. The magic? The fairies? We get only the briefest of glimpses of either of these by the 75-page point. Seventy-five pages! And the hints at sci-fi? That comes only via the myriad references to SF book authors, titles, and characters, and I found the constant bombardment irritating. Maybe the intent was to add context? Not sure, but I found my eyes glazing over at every mention. The real disappointment for me was that nothing happens (at least not in the initial 75 pages), rather it's a LOT of plowing through uninteresting family history with brief references to things that happened off the page. Even these references are approached sort of sideways -- more of a by-the-way the twin sister is dead rather than a scene that shows us what happened. Maybe some of these things are played out or come together further in, but I just couldn't make myself keep reading. For me, reading is supposed to be pleasurable, not frustrating.

Switzerland!

My husband and I spent 15 glorious days traveling through Switzerland this past May in celebration of our 30th (!) wedding anniversary. It was a fantastic experience. We used their rail system to get around and it was fast, easy, and fun. I wish we had something like that here in the States... imagine all the extra reading or writing or napping we could get done while being whisked to and from... of course, maybe it works so well there because everything is relatively close together.

Getting to Switzerland took a LOT of work. I first dreamed of the idea several years ago, then we made the commitment to make it happen about a year before we went (deciding on the date, etc). But the real work was in the reading and planning and reading some more during the 6 months prior to our departure. I spent hours upon hours researching various activities and options, learning the lay of the land and the customs. The single smartest thing I did was purchase Rick Steves' book on Switzerland. It gave me a starting point. I made lists of possible cities to visit and then more lists of things to do and see in those cities, places to sleep, restaurants to try. In the end, we visited the following cities in this order:

Appenzell
Luzern
Lugano
Pontresina
Zermatt
Lausanne
Murren
Zurich

We took TONS of pictures. I took over 2000 myself; my husband took nearly 1000. It was fun to see our different perspectives. (On our trip to Ireland in 2010, he took a picture of every restroom he visited, but THAT'S a different story.) We put together a slide show for the family and had them over so they could experience Switzerland through our eyes. Here are some of my favorites:

Cows were everywhere, and some wore huge, melodic cow bells. These two greeted us on the road to/from our B&B into Appenzell proper.

This is the Aescher Restaurant where we enjoyed a plate of Rosti, a local favorite made with potatoes and cheese. The restaurant is built into the side of the mountain... one wall in each of the restrooms is actually rock, with the room built around it. To get here, we took the train in Appenzell and rode it to Ebenalp, took a cable car up to 5,380 feet, then followed a very picturesque trail to the restaurant. We hiked back down and learned our 1st important lesson: take whatever time the Swiss give you in terms of how long something will take and TRIPLE it. Their estimate for the hike down: 1 to 1 1/2 hours. Our reality: 4 hours. We missed the last train back to Appenzell, tried hitchhiking (with no luck), and finally flagged down a bus. What an adventure!

I LOVE the look and feel of this little alley... the curve, the warm colors, the bikes are all very inviting to me. This is right off the main thoroughfare in Luzern. We'd just dropped our luggage in our room and headed back out, eager to explore. I looked to my right and stopped in my tracks, absorbing the homeyness of this sight.

Night falls over Lake Luzern with the Hof Church lit up in the background. Isn't this gorgeous??

A night view of Piazza della Riforma in Lugano. We ate at the Olimpia Restaurant and had the best pizza we've ever had! If only we could find a crust like that in the States.

A trail marker in Pontresina. We had a GREAT time in Pontresina... we hiked, saw some wildlife, and when the sun came out, it was breathtaking.

Check out our walking sticks... everyone should have one. The views were fabulous! Imagine waking up to this landscape every morning.

Chateau de Chillon on Lake Geneva just outside Montreux. It began raining just after I took this picture, but the rolling clouds were fantastic, adding drama and mystery.

Talk about clouds! This is the Black Monk shrouded in layer after layer of clouds, taken from where we were staying in Murren (accessible only via a train or cable car) at 5381 feet. We couldn't fully appreciate just how impressive these mountains were until the sun came out. Being so high up, they appeared enormous... and it felt like we could reach right out and touch them. But when the sky cleared and we could see just how big they were... WOW.

Murren was, by far, where we enjoyed ourselves the most. The views are indescribable. Nature's beauty is everywhere and beckons in subtle and grand ways. Being out in it was invigorating and awe-inspiring.
 

What a difference the sun makes! The Sonnenberg Valley just after sunrise. We got up early and hiked uphill for an hour... the valley was still in shadow when we arrived. But as soon as the sun cleared the Black Monk, light flooded the valley.

When sunlight hits the Sonnenberg Valley, the cabins look magical. Imagine waking to these views every morning... what a fabulous life that would be.

The tulips were glorious here in Murren.

Staubbach Falls (at 300 meters) in the Lauterbrunnen Valley is the 2nd highest waterfall in Switzerland. The highest waterfall (Murrenbachfall - 417 meters) is in this same valley, just down the road a bit. The valley is filled with waterfalls, cows, and wildflowers... just gorgeous.

The big three, from left to right: Eiger, Monch, Jungfrau. They are magnificent!! Truly something to see and experience.

Zurich is a vibrant, exciting city. Here, boats are docked on the Limmat River, which feeds into Lake Zurich.

Night falls on the Limmat River in Zurich, but I'm not sure the city ever sleeps. There were so many folks out and about while we walked the streets, camera and tripod in tow.


This was a trip of a lifetime, magical and enchanting in so many ways. Switzerland is divided into four regions with four official languages (German, Italian, French, and Romansh - an obscure Latin dialect), and each region is distinct from the others. My least favorite was the French, though, to be fair, it was the area where we spent the least amount of time. Maybe another trip to more fully round out my exposure is in order? The folks in the German-speaking regions were very warm and friendly and were, in our experience, the most accommodating to conversing with us in English.

For a girl who absolutely and unequivocally loves and is IN love with mountains, there is no greater place on earth in which to experience their unadulterated grandeur and majesty than Switzerland. It was pure magic, and I feel blessed.