commuting in gracetopia

Commuting isn’t fun for anybody. Day in, day out, go this way, go that way. But my last few days have been particularly horrific.

1. Yesterday morning, I am on the bus, on my way to my T stop. It is a usual crowded morning bus, and I am standing near the windshield.

And the bus approaches a stoplight. At this stoplight, like many of its brethren stoplights, Direction North/South goes, then Direction East/West goes, and then the pedestrians go. We are Direction N/S, and the light just turns red as we approach. So then Direction E/W goes. And then it is time for the pedestrians to go, but the bus driver apparently doesn’t know this and starts going. Not just that inch you do when the light is about to turn, he actively begins moving. BUT WAIT there are pedestrians! BRAKE BRAKE!

So the bus driver brakes hard, and everyone goes flying forward. Including me. And I am basically at the front. I am off balance and I go flying and but for the huge bearded hippie dude who is much sturdier than I am, I would have gone through the windshield. So thank you huge bearded hippie dude.

2. Today on my subway ride home, someone threw up in my car. Like, just threw up and left.

I hate vomit. I hate it hate it hate it whether it comes from me or someone else.

I almost threw up as well. God the smell. It was horrible.

I can only wait to see what fun tomorrow will bring.

we come in peace

I really just

don’t understand

but I think I like it

lazy day of summer

Wow it’s hot.

I have accomplished approximately nothing this weekend. I’m currently in Providence, RI, lazing on my friend’s deck in this 87-degree weather. Trying to balance the beer intake with the water intake and stay under the umbrella’s shade. Had some thoughts of writing, but the sun broiled my brain to mush.

So I’m going to tidy up some things around Gracetopia (going to update the Rogues’ Gallery, for one) and go back to doing nothing on the internet.

More updates as events warrant.

redshirt!

This post is a couple weeks old, but I keep going back to it because I love it so.

beam me up

So. I have a question.

The new Star Trek movie comes out in two weeks. I have been looking forward to this for over a year, ever since I knew Simon Pegg would be playing Scotty. Because I love Simon Pegg and would pay to see him read the phone book. Also because I… liked… Star Trek.

I couldn’t really say that I loved it because until a couple of days ago I’d seen maybe 6 episodes total.

I realize my sci-fi street cred is tarnished slightly because of this. It’s not that I ever disliked it. I actually know quite a bit about the series (well, TOS and TNG at least) considering how little I’ve seen of it. (Though I must admit I get confused sometimes because my original introduction was my childhood friend’s Star Trek toy set wherin Counselor Troi, Captain Janeway, and Mr. Spock all shared the bridge.) I simply never got around to watching it in great quantity. I’d enjoyed what I’d seen (except for Wesley, bleh), I’d just never taken the time to get into it.

But I didn’t want to be one of those people who becomes a fan only when something new and shiny happens. So, in preparation for the movie, and in order to try to regain some of my credibility, I am now watching basically the entire original series. Cramming Star Trek, so to speak.

And I’m loving it. Like, when I show up to the movie in two weeks, I will legit be a fan.

So the question: how legit is this fan-ness?

I’m not going to pretend that I’ve been a fan for ages or that I’m a true Trekker/Trekkie (someone difference please?). But my excitement is real. My love of the series is real.

It just… started like 48 hours ago.

Legit yes/no?

sunday sunday

Good evening, everyone.

Currently listening to: the Sharks game. Gooooo Sharks! I wish I didn’t have to listen to it on the radio, b/c the radio announcers are even more annoying than the normal announcers. Oh well. Someday I’ll own the Sharks, so they’ll save me box seats for every game. (hey, a girl can dream, right?)

Anyway, I’m spending the weekend taking the kid brother to colleges. Tomorrow we’re going to have the fun experience of trying to drive in Boston on the day of the marathon. Luckily we’re closer to the freeway than to the race, so maybe we can just make a quick escape. Maybe…

The fact that I can take tomorrow off is weird to me. Like, I saw on my work schedule that April 20 was an optional holiday, and I was like, “what? we get 4/20 off?” Then I figured it out. But still. You silly New Englanders and your silly holidays. :)

Anaheim just scored. Damn it. This is not going well.

free book: The Wizard Heir by Cinda Williams Chima

Another YA boy book. For free!

Sixteen-year-old Seph McCauley has spent the past three years getting kicked out of one exclusive private school after another. And it’s not his attitude that’s the problem. It’s the trail of magical accidents–lately, disasters–that follow in his wake. Seph is a wizard, orphaned and untrained–and his powers are escalating out of control.

After causing a tragic fire at an after-hours party, Seph is sent to the Havens, a secluded boys’ school on the coast of Maine. At first, it seems like the answer to his prayers. Gregory Leicester, the headmaster, promises to train Seph in magic and initiate him into his mysterious order of wizards. But Seph’s enthusiasm dampens when he learns that training comes at a steep cost, and that Leicester plans to use his students’ powers to serve his own dangerous agenda.

In this companion novel to the exciting fantasy The Warrior Heir, everyone’s got a secret to keep: Jason Haley, a fellow student who’s been warned to keep away from Seph; the enchanter Linda Downey, who knew his parents; the rogue wizard Leander Hastings, and the warriors Jack Swift and Ellen Stephenson. This wizard war is one that Seph may not have the strength to survive.

So, the normal rules apply. If you want it, let me know in the comments and I’ll choose a random winner. Shipping and handling’s on me.

A note: as this blurb says, it’s the “companion novel” for The Warrior Heir but I didn’t know that going in and it totally worked as a story for me.

free book: Memoirs of a Master Forger

EDIT: nobody? really? okay, well, I’ll leave this giveaway open and the first person who wants it gets it. meantime I’ll try to find a more popular option…

Another free book! Memoirs of a Master Forger, by William Heaney.

my cover does not look like this

I found this book in a used bookstore and bought it based solely on the awesomness of the title and because the cover said something about demons. The cover looks nothing like that ^ by the way, because I have an ARC (Advanced Reader Copy). ie, this copy is from before it was actually published. As it says inside:

This is an uncorrected manuscript proof. Do not quote for publication until verified with finished book. This readers’ copy is for promotional purposes and review by the recipient and may not be used for any other purpose or transferred to any third party. Any duplication, sale or distribution to the public is a violation of law.

So, um. Yeah. Please nobody arrest me. I am trying to do good in the world, really, and spread the joy of words.

Anyway. The book was published in October 2008. The amazon blurb:

William is a dissolute book-forger. A talented writer in his own right he would rather scribble poems anonymously for an asian friend (who is becoming increasingly successful as a result), and create forgeries of Jane Austen first editions to sell to gullible collectors. He’s not all bad. The money from the forgeries goes straight to a homeless hostel and William’s crimes don’t really hurt anyone. And there are reasons William hasn’t amounted to more. He did something he was ashamed of when he was a student, he drinks far too much and he can’t commit to any relationships. Oh, and he sees demons. Shadowy figures at the shoulder of everyone around him (except the woman who runs the hostel, who remains untouched), waiting for a moment’s weakness. Or is just that William can see the suffering of the world? And then an extraordinary woman, who may just be able to save him from the world’s suffering, walks into his life. This is William’s own story. But who can believe a master forger?

So my copy’s an ARC like I said, and it’s not in pristine, like-new condition (the edges are bumped around a bit) but other than that it’s fine. Let me know if you want it! Just leave a comment. If there’s more than one response I’ll figure out some clever way to choose a winner and then mail it, no charge. Easy as pie!

And please nobody call the cops on me.

book review: The Tourist

The Tourist, by Olen Steinhauer

So I read two NY Times reviews of this book. The first, by Janet Maslin, raved about it. Best thing since sliced bread, basically. Based on that review, I bought the book. Then I read the other Times review, by Marilyn Stasio. She thought it was dreadful and confusing, and wrote more about how George Clooney bought the movie rights than about the book itself. Well. Okay then. So I was slightly dubious when I finally opened the book.

Note to self: in future, we’re going with Janet Maslin’s opinion.

Our hero Milo Weaver used to be a Tourist, a member of a covert CIA division so covert nobody outside the Department of Tourism knows about it. Now he’s retired from active duty, working a desk at the Department’s office in New York City.

Until one of the world’s deadliest assassins, a man known only as the Tiger, is arrested in Tennessee for beating his girlfriend. Milo, who has been chasing the Tiger from his desk for years, heads out to question him, not knowing that he is about to be drawn back into his former life as an operative—and with his life at stake.

So first of all, just to get this out of the way, if I ever read of a woman crossing her arms under, or over, or on top of her breasts ever again, I may strangle someone. (Really, Steinhauer? She couldn’t just cross them? We all know that’s where women keep their breasts, really we do.) But overall the writing is quite good, both in the beauty of the language (a terse, spy-thriller type of beauty) and its ability to pull the reader quickly through some complex plotting.

It would be doing this story an injustice to go into too much detail about this plot. Careening through the labyrinth Steinhauer has constructed is part of the excitement of this book. I had trouble keeping up sometimes, but then when the “solution” finally arrives, it seems so pure and simple and perfect.

But really, the best part of this book, the reason you should read it, is for the world-weary former op Steinhauer has created in Milo Weaver. Milo is a veteran of this spying nonsense. He knows all the tricks, and once his body has turned back “on” into operative mode, he goes through the motions mechanically. He knows all the bullshit, and can see through layers of it in an instant. And he doesn’t want to deal with it.

See, in between the brief Part I (September 10-11, 2001, in Slovenia) and Part II (July 4, 2007, Tennessee) Milo has acquired a wife and a stepdaughter and a small sense of normality. And he doesn’t want to lose it. He’s good at being  a Tourist, but it isn’t what he wants to do, but it’s what he has to do in order to keep his family safe, but being a Tourist is inherently unsafe, but… etc. And Steinhauer makes Milo’s problems and emotions real and intense. You feel him. You relate to him, even as he’s doing spy things that we normal citizens could never imagine. You want him to win, but first he needs to figure out what “win” means.

So yes. I enjoyed this book. I’m not going to call it one of the greatest books ever, but it is very good, and the character of Milo really makes it. So. You should read it. Yes.

chomp

It begins!