a wolf angel is not a good angel

“I wouldn’t want to drive on those streets. You know. The streets that go up and down.”
” . . . ”
“Hills! Hills that go up and down.”

Farthing, by Jo Walton.
A little heavy-handed, and really shitty as a mystery, but really good in the world building, and a very effective — and, sadly, plausible — alternate history. The good guys were very well characterised. Looking forward to the next ones with interest.

An Instance of the Fingerpost, Iain Banks.
It had such good reviews, I expected much better. I mean, it’s fine, but 200 pages each time on the same story? On the other hand, at least it’s not Neal Stephenson length.

Labyrinth, Kate Mosse.
Stupid.

The Fourth Bear, Jasper Fforde.
I’m over my Jasper Fforde love. As much as I was amused by MacGuffin, there was just too much cleverness packed into this book, like it was trying too hard, and it wasn’t funny in the same way the earlier ones were.

Oblivion, Peter Abrahams.
I rather liked this — a private investigator gets amnesia and reinvestigates his last case.

The Catastrophist, Lawrence Douglas.
I sat there, reading, thinking oh no, no no no, how stupid can you be? But I liked the book, probably because of the criminally stupid narrator.

Someone comes to town, someone leaves town, Cory Doctorow.
I nearly went back and drew diagrams for each of the brothers’ names. It was exceptionally boy-heavy — almost all the characters were male — which is, alas, typical for fantasyish books. (Farthing is a nice exception.) But I had fun reading it.

The Devil Wears Prada/Everyone Worth Knowing, Lauren Weisberger.
These are pretty much the same book. Cotton candy fluff.

Call me insensitive or whatever, but you really shouldn’t be davening on a plane. Really. There’s not much room, so you’re pissing off the people next to, in front of, and behind you with all the rocking. Or you’re taking up a bathroom, which is just rude. And the flight from Mtl to NYC, gate to gate, is about an hour and they tell you in advance when it’s going to start, so you can do the praying in either airport. Both, even. And there’s no rule about praying at exact specific times, so you can in fact be praying some other time when you’re not in some itsy seat squished up next to strangers.

In short, look, I think it’s wrong that the guy was removed from the flight, but I think what he was doing was obnoxious.

Update: so it’s clear, I don’t think people should never pray on an airplane. I do not think people should daven in their seats (have you *seen* people davening? It’s very active). There’s lots of room near the bathrooms. There are areas in the back which should be open to people who need to pray. If it’s a few minutes, bathrooms are also fine (though sort of icky for praying, I’d think). And on an hour-long flight, just get a grip and wait. And if it’s bothering you — physically, not “it annoys me to have to see other people pray” — then ask the person to stop, or tell the flight attendant your seat is shaking but quit with the asking people to leave the plane. If it bothers you in the airport, walk away.

Instead of thinking about things I don’t want to be thinking about, let’s talk about last night’s House. The joy I had in the character continuity — Wilson has always been the character who lied to House for his own good (often to House’s detriment), and Cuddy has always been the one who reluctantly went along wtht it. House deciding that just being alive wasn’t enough, as per his earlier discussions with Foreman. Chase giving in when House asked him to do something, even when Foreman and Cameron refused. Cameron is a little lacking in continuity, but since the writers are trying to make her a better character, I’ll give her that. I love shows that feel that character continuity is important. (Timeline continuity clearly doesn’t exist for them, but they’ve also said as much, in a metameta way.)

Positives: no one almost died because of sex this episode!
Negatives: yet again, the female patient did something stupid which caused her near death.

Positives: Cuddy! In I think slightly less hideous outfits than usual. Very slightly.
Negatives: not *enough* Cuddy, and what about that sperm donor thing? If that ends in her and House together, though, not good.

Positives: two patients
Negatives: hello? Clinic? We miss you, clinic patients

I like that despite the magic end of limp (required, as I understand it, by Hugh Laurie, who found limping too painful), they continued with the need for Vicodin and the puzzle to solve (and the Vicodin when the puzzle wasn’t solved — would House have stolen the pad if he’d found out the truth?). I loved that they went back to the Rolling Stones. And I refuse to watch the previews, so I don’t know what’s coming next, but this bodes well for a season that is better than last season (hey, no Stacy, no ‘Foreman in charge’).

I’m feeling sad again, or tired. Tired just normal tired, maybe, or tired something else tired. I don’t know and I don’t know if I want to know. I had a nice summer, but summer is clearly over and now it is fall and it’s getting darker and colder and I miss summer already, we missed May and August to rain and wind and chill, and now it’s September.

You know what? If you want me to set up a time that you can assess my place, you can speak to me in English. So I left an English message on the machine. If he’s pleasant about it, I’ll switch to French.

Constructing a mystery plot is like an interactive game with a very long time frame. Audiences change over time because they catch on to certain narrative devices, and the devices become useless. The trick for authors and filmmakers is to understand the evolving assumptions of the audience, and play off those assumptions.

Sometimes that seems impossible. The great plots have all been used, most of them by Agatha Christie. . . .

On the other end of the spectrum, there are the hastily written “a child is in peril” novels, often by people named Kellerman, which use the suspense form to, I dunno, prevent wildfires through effective deforestation techniques? Bleh. Then there are the “a serial killer is on the loose sending enigmatic notes/playing cards/collages/Christmas tree ornaments to the police” books, which seem as if they should be solvable, but aren’t. It’s the super at the building where the third murder was committed! Are you surprised? Of course you are, because anything would surprise you.

Now I feel sort of ashamed for reading those books, too (not all of them are that bad — but most are). And also I really want to do something (but what?) with the idea of mystery plots as interactive games. And read a number of the books or movies mentioned in the article.

In my guilt over having run out of food one day, I bought my cat cat grass (which got attacked when it was outside) and kitty treats (Caribbean Catch by Pounce). She did not like the kitty treats, but I decided it was because she’s a picky eater (though never with treats). Okay. I’ll give the treats to the other cats. Eva was insulted when I held them near her. Sam sniffed them and walked away. Cocoa picked one up then dropped it back out of his mouth, covered in spit but otherwise untouched.

The Galloping Cat

Oh I am a cat that likes to
Gallop about doing good
So
One day when I was
Galloping about doing good, I saw
A figure in the path; I said
Get off! (Be-
cause
I am a cat that likes to
Gallop about doing good)
But he did not move, instead
He raised his hand as if
To land me a cuff
So I made to dodge so as to
Prevent him bringing it orf,
Un-for-tune-ately I slid
On a banana skin
Some Ass had left instead
Of putting in the bin. So
His hand caught me on the cheek
I tried
To lay his arm open from wrist to elbow
With my sharp teeth
Because I am
A cat that likes to gallop about doing good.
Would you believe it?
He wasn’t there
My teeth met nothing but air,
But a Voice said: Poor Cat,
(Meaning me) and a soft stroke
Came on me head
Since when
I have been bald.
I regard myself as
A martyr to doing good
Also I heard a swoosh
As of wings, and saw
A halo shining at the height of
Mrs Gubbins’s backyard fence,
So I thought: What’s the good
Of galloping about doing good
When angels stand in the path
And do not do as they should
Such as having an arm to be bitten off
All the same I
Intend to go on being
A cat that likes to
Gallop about doing good
So
Now with my bald head I go,
Chopping the untidy flowers down, to
and fro,
An’ scooping up the grass to show
Underneath
The cinder path of wrath
Ha ha ha ha, ho,
Angels aren’t the only ones who do
not know
What’s what and that
Galloping about doing good
Is a full time job
That needs
An experienced eye of earthly
Sharpness, worth I dare say
(if you’ll forgive a personal note)
A good deal more
Than all that skyey stuff
Of angels that make so bold as
To pity a cat like me that
Gallops about doing good.

-Stevie Smith

On hold:

The rent collector : a novel / by B. Glen Rotchin.
The night journal / by Elizabeth Crook.
The continuity girl / by Leah McLaren.
Alphabet of thorn / by Patricia A. McKillip.
Size 12 is not fat : a Heather Wells mystery / by Meg Cabot.
Black swan green : a novel / by David Mitchell.
A dirty job / by Christopher Moore.
Queen Isabella : treachery, adultery, and murder in medieval England / by Alison Weir.
The ruins : a novel / by Scott Smith.
Stumbling on happiness / by Daniel Gilbert.
Veronica / by Mary Gaitskill.
The pure in the heart : a Simon Serrailler crime novel / by Susan Hill.
Suspect / by Michael Robotham.
Special topics in calamity physics / by Marisha Pessl.

Out:

The reckoning / by Sharon Kay Penman.
The historian : a novel / by Elizabeth Kostova.
Water Inc. / by Varda Burstyn.
Desertion / by Abdulrazak Gurnah.
Snow / by Orhan Pamuk ; translated from the Turkish by Maureen Freely.
Misfortune : a novel / by Wesley Stace.
An instance of the fingerpost / by Iain Pears.
Oblivion / by Peter Abrahams.
The catastrophist / by Lawrence Douglas.
Lunar Park / by Bret Easton Ellis.
Kafka on the shore / by Haruki Murakami ; translated from the Japanese by Philip Gabriel.
A field of darkness / by Cornelia Read.
The skirt man / by Shelly Reuben.
Dialogues : a novel of suspense / by Stephen Spignesi.
Daalder’s chocolates / by Philibert Schogt ; translated from the Dutch by Sherry Marx
Our culture, what’s left of it : the mandarins and the masses / by Theodore Dalrymple.
Marrying up / by Jackie Rose.
Someone comes to town, someone leaves town / by Cory Doctorow.
Invitation to the game / by Monica Hughes.

They also keep track of recently read books.

I also have a list of books I want to take out which are not actually out now so I will pick up once my currently out list gets to the single digits. But that list could use some growing, so: suggestions? Where do people get their book ideas from? (Newspapers, other blogs, stumbling on them at the bookstore, reading up on the shortlists for some prizes. Bookslut never did it for me. Chicklit is gone.)