Special Topics in Calamity Physics ***

*** Special Topics in Calamity Physics, Marisha Pessl, 2008

First Novel

When I told The Number One Son that I needed some reading for the return flight, having finished The Lincoln Lawyer, he handed me this book, saying, "I finally found a novel that uses more big words per page than yours."

It is true that I don't suffer from hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia and I'm not ashamed of my vocabulary, but I'm not particularly given to sesquipedalianism. Actually, it's not hard to find a novel with a richer vocabulary than mine, and very readable ones, such as Peace Like a River.

Blue, the protagonist of Special Topics in Calamity Physics, is apparently a genius, hence her propsensity for the occasional (OK, OK, the frequent) size 15 word. She also has a tendency to provide references for all her allusions, some of which are amusing, others helpful. (Oh, so that's what she meant by that metahor.)

This is a good book. It passed The Ellilptical Test, made easier as it is a large hardback, and therefore easier to keep open while I'm sweating the lbs away. I liked the book and would recommend it, but there were a few . . .

Nit-picky things that bugged me:

p. 28. Howie Easton, who went through girls the way a deer hunter in a single day of shooting could go through hundreds of rounds of ammunition. Anybody who has actually been deer hunting knows you don't go through hundreds of rounds of ammunition. If you don't get it with the first shot, you probably won't get the chance for a second. And if you do shoot off hundreds of rounds, you won't get to shoot anything, because no deer will be within miles of you after the first few rounds.

p. 30. You got to put your goods on display, babe. Otherwise, not only will the boys ignore you but - an' trust me on this, my sister's flat as you - we're talkin' the Great Plains of East Texas - no landmarks - one day you'll look down and have no wares at all. What'll you do then? Don't try to tell Mark Cloud about the "Great Plains of East Texas." Anybody who has been to East Texas knows it's choked with forests. That's why it's called the Big Thicket and the Piney Woods. Head west on I-20 and from Tyler, TX to Columbia, SC it's 1,000+ miles of solid trees. Just a glance at this GoogleMaps satellite view tells the story. Great Plains of East Texas my hind foot!

p. ??. illicit vs elicit. I know how things like this can creep into a book. After Welcome to Fred came out, Ray Blackson pointed out that I had reversed Francis Marion's name, calling him Marion Francis. (Oops!) And Merle Bobzien found several typos, including Monkeys instead of Monkees, and rue instead of roux. (And me a good East Texas boy and all, with a Cajun uncle who made shrimp gumbo for Thanksgiving. I'm ashamed.) Even so, I was a little bugged to see this common switcheroo, especially since the protagonist is such a word braniac.

p. 432. He found him on a fantasy island called Paxos, livin' high off the hog. Although you will find a lot of people saying off, the proper saying is living high on the hog.

• Living high off the hog has the word high describing how you are living. You are living high, and you are doing it off a hog. What the heck does that mean? How does a hog enable you to live high?
• Living high on the hog has the world high describing the location on the hog. Specifically, it describes which cuts of meat you're eating, the more expensive cuts higher up on the flank. You're eating the good stuff, living high on the hog.

Yes, picky stuff, but hey, Blue is presented as an intellectual, borderline if not true genius. I can't cut her as much slack as I would another character.

Still, it's a good book. Give it a shot.

Daniel Lanois - The Maker

First up from the "Songs you won't hear on the radio" files:

The Maker by Daniel Lanois

Lanois has a moody, atmospheric sound. I find this song very moving with its themes of alienation, knowing and being known and allusions to the fall. He's produced Grammy winning albums for U2, Dylan, and Emmylou.

The music video

Emmylou cover

Willie/Emmylou/Daniel cover

Dave Matthews cover

Lyrics

Note on the Emmylou cover: About 25 years ago I jammed with the guitar player, Buddy Miller. Somewhere I have a tape of me and The Woman, Buddy and his wife, Julie, trading songs in his living room. With Daniel (Whittington, not Lanois) talking over one of my songs. He was 3, I think.

2008 Reading List

1. *** The Lincoln Lawyer, Michael Connelly, 2005
2. *** From Beirut to Jerusalem, Thomas Friedman, 1989
3. *** The Maze of Bones, Rick Riordan, 2008
4. *** The Battle of the Labyrinth, Rick Riordan, 2008
5. *** Making a Good Writer Great: A Creativity Workbook for Screenwriters, Linda Seger, 1999
6. *** Creating Unforgettable Characters, Linda Seger, 1990
7. *** The Italian Secretary, Caleb Carr, 2005
8. *** The Alientist, Caleb Carr, 1995
9. *** Advanced Screenwriting: Raising your Script to the Academy Award Level, Dr. Linda Seger, 2003
10. *** The Shape Shifter, Tony Hillerman, 2006
11. *** The South Beach Diet, Arthur Agatston, 2003
12. **Property Management for Dummies, Robert Griswold, 2001
13. *** The Shape of Mercy, Susan Meissner, 2008
14. **Murder on the Rocks, Karen MacInerney, 2006
15. ** Lives of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence, B J Lossing, 1848
16. *** The Year of Living Biblically, A. J. Jacobs, 2007
17. ** The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley, 1982
18. *** Demon: A Memoir, Tosca Lee, 2007
19. ** R. Holmes & Co., John Kendrick Bangs, 1906
20. *** Romancing Hollywood Nobody, Lisa Samson, 2008
21. ** Texas: A Year with the Boys, by William Hoffman, 1983
22. ** Anatomy of a Rodeo Clown, Aleta Lutz
23. ** Burning Bright, John Steinbeck, 1950
24. *** The Writer's Journey: Mythic Structure for Storytellers and Screenwriters, Christopher Vogler, 1992
25. ** A Place Called Wiregrass, by Michael Morris, 2002
26. *** Muslim Women in America: The Challenge of Islamic Identity Today. Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad, Jane I. Smith, Kathleen M. Moore, 2006
27. **** River Rising, Athol Dickson, 2005
28. ***+ Straight Man, Richard Russo, 1997
29. * The Shack, William P. Young, 2007
30. *** Deadline, John Dunning, 1981
31. *** Retribution, Stuart Kaminsky, 2002
32. *** Embrace Me, Lisa Samson, 2008
33. *** To Say Nothing of the Dog, Connie Willis, 1997
34. ** The Holland Suggestions, John Dunning, 1975
35. *** Finding Hollywood Nobody, Lisa Samson, 2008
36. *** Skeleton Man, Tony Hillerman, 2004
37. *** My Name is Russell Fink, by Michael Snyder, 2008
38. *** Action Plan for High Cholesterol, Arry Durstine, 2006
39. *** Sleep Toward Heaven, Amanda Eyre Ward, 2003

The Day Before The Morning After

In honor of New Year's Day, here's an excerpt from Jeeves Takes Charge on New Year's Eve.

I crawled off the sofa and opened the door. A kind of darkish sort of respectful Johnnie stood without.

"I was sent by the agency, sir," he said. "I was given to understand that you required a valet."

I'd have preferred an undertaker; but I told him to stagger in, and he floated noiselessly through the doorway like a healing zephyr. That impressed me from the start. Meadowes had had flat feet and used to clump. This fellow didn't seem to have any feet at all. He just streamed in. He had a grave, sympathetic face, as if he, too, knew what it was to sup with the lads.

"Excuse me, sir," he said gently.

Then he seemed to flicker, and wasn't there any longer. I heard him moving about in the kitchen, and presently he came back with a glass on a tray.

"If you would drink this, sir," he said, with a kind of bedside manner, rather like the royal doctor shooting the bracer into the sick prince. "It is a little preparation of my own invention. It is the Worcester Sauce that gives it its colour. The raw egg makes it nutritious. The red pepper gives it its bite. Gentlement have told me that have found it extremely invigorating after a late evening."

I would have clutched at anything that looked like a life-line that morning. I swallowed the stuff. For a moment I felt as if somebody had touched off a bomb inside the old bean and was strolling down my throat with a lighted torch, and then everything seemed suddenly to get all right. The sun shone in through the window; birds twittered in the tree-tops; and, generally speaking, hope dawned once more.

"You're engaged!" I sad, as soon as I could say anything.

I perceived clearly that this cove was one of the world's wonder workers, the sort no home should be without.

"Thank you sir. My name is Jeeves."

The Lincoln Lawyer ***

*** The Lincoln Lawyer, Michael Connelly, 2005

I'm a big Michael Connelly fan since I first tumbled to the Harry Bosch series about ten years ago. I had the thrill of hearing him speak at the Texas Book Festival a few years back and he seemed like a real down-to-earth guy. He's good people, as we say down here in Texas.

But I'm far from star-struck. All the books I've read by him are decent reads, but some are more decent than others. The last few I've read wowed me less than the others, so I wondered how The Lincoln Lawyer would compare. Lay aside all doubts. This is Connelly at the top of his game.

For me it was plane-reading. I was headed to San Luis Obispo to lay down bass tracks on the newest CD by the Number One Son. (Photos on his blog.) It was captivating and I only set it aside when I complained about having to pay $150 to get the flight case on the plane and discovered I was sitting next to John Hagen, cellist extraordinare, (These things happen when you fly out of Austin.) on his way to do a Lyle Lovett gig, who had also paid $150 to get his cello checked. I read it as time permitted, until the night before the recording date, when I hit a spot that wouldn't let go. I ended up reading straight through till the end, closing the covers around two a.m. It made for a long recording day, but some things just can't be helped.

This book is as good an introduction to Connelly as any. Or start with the first Bosch book, The Black Echo. Either way, check him out. He's worth your time.

From Beirut to Jerusalem ***

*** From Beirut to Jerusalem, Thomas Friedman, 1989

Three stars for the average citizen. Four stars for those interested in the Middle East.

Dated, but detailed, it's no surprise why this three-time Pulitzer-prize-winner received the National Book Award with this account of his time spent in the Lebanon and Israel in the 70s and 80s. Friedman was on-hand to see and report first-hand on such history-making events as the 1982 invasion of Lebanon by Israel, the Sabra and Shatila massacre, the 1983 Marine-barracks bombing in Beirut and the beginning of the first Palestinian Intifada (1987).

Friedman's perspective seems to this marginally-informed reader to be fairly balanced. Read it and let me know what you think.

The Maze of Bones ***

*** The Maze of Bones, Rick Riordan, 2008

Book 1 of the 10-book series, The 39 Clues. Rick Riordan wrote this one and designed the story arc for the entire series. Each of the 39 Clues books will be written by a different author. The second, One False Note, is available as of December 2, 2008, and was written by Gordon Korman.

I liked Rick's first series, Percy Jackson and the Olympians, but I like The Maze of Bones even more. Not sure why. But if you have kids who like this sort of thing, or if you are a kid who likes this sort of thing, The 39 Clues experience also includes trading cards and a huge on-line game which will allow you to become a member of the Cahill family and compete for prizes.

If you do the online thing, let me know how it turns out. I'm too busy reading the books.

Coming in 2009: Songs You Won't Hear On The Radio

Because I apparently don't have enough to do already, I'm going to post the occasional music-related review of songs that have stood out for me over the years.

Here's a little appetizer: A shockingly young Tom Waits singing The Piano Has Been Drinking live on Fernwood Tonight.

The Battle of the Labyrinth ***

*** The Battle of the Labyrinth, Rick Riordan, 2008

Shockingly, this is the first Rick Riordan book I've reviewed here. Shocking, because I'm a major fan since running across a copy of The Last King of Texas in a Honolulu bookstore. I'm particularly a fan of the Tres Navarre PI books. But more about that when I finally read Rebel Island.

The Battle of the Labyrinth is book 4 in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. Rick was a middle-school English teacher before his writing consumed so much of his time that he had to leave it behind. A teacher-of-the-year kind of English teacher. Back in 2005 I had the pleasure of attending a half-day session Rick did for the Writers League of Texas on how to write a whodunit. It was apparent in a matter of minutes that he was indeed a teacher-of-the-year kind of guy. And a read of any Percy Jackson book makes it clear that Rick knows his audience.

I won't go into the details of the plot of this or the other PJatO books. Just know that if you like this sort of thing (young adult book of fantasy, magic, mythology, etc.) you will love Percy Jackson. The first movie is scheduled to release in 2010.

Making a Good Writer Great ***

*** Making a Good Writer Great: A Creativity Workbook for Screenwriters, Linda Seger, 1999

Third of the three Linda Seger books I bought recently, making four of her books total that I've read. This book is endorsed by Ray Bradbury, which carries a lot of weight with me, as a Bradbury fan for almost 40 years, now.

This book is largely a set of creative exercises to get the juices flowing and take it to the next level. I typically shy away from such works, since I typically know what I want to write and how to write it, so if it hadn't been Linda and hadn't been endorsed by Bradbury, I probably wouldn't have picked it up. But I have great respect for both, so I snagged it along with the others.

It's worth the read. One paragraph in particular caused me to start re-thinking the rewrite on my current project. Other sections, such as mining your dreams, didn't do much for me. But you can't have everything. Where would you put it all?