Gather around, and let me tell you a story.

Once upon a time, I was a dorky seventeen, working at the local Taco Bell. I would work late nights, mostly because, well, my friends did. And these friends, they liked to play Magic the Gathering (MtG) late into the night. And as a girl playing, I was a huge novelty. My friends gave me cards, made my decks, forgot about me when we played in massive group games to the point where I might, and did, win.

MtG: Arena

I enjoyed playing, and there was a book that was passed around, called Arena, that was pretty much the most awesomest book ever. Well, by ever, I mean in the history of MtG. Which at that time, wasn’t a terribly long list; from what I gather, Arena was possibly the first.¹ But what I liked about the book, and probably what other people liked about it too, was that the main character was someone like us—someone who controlled mana and cast spells, as you do in the game. It was unique in that for a fantasy, it was a different look at the world. It was the introduction of “the plainswalker.”² The plainswalker in the book was the position the player had while playing the game. Instead of a lightning bolt being an actual, natural lightning bolt, it was a spell pulled from a pouch and called into being, much as you would play a card from your hand.

Now, fast forward, oh, nearly ten years or so. I’m done playing MtG. I sold all my cards off or gave them away. I only desperately want a copy of Arena because I remember how awesome it was, and I’m on a terrible nostalgia trip about the books I’ve loved. And then E comes back from summer vacation, hooked on MtG bad. I mentioned that I used to play, if he ever wanted someone to play with. And so we did. Even before we were “official” with our dating, he had already amassed a large card collection that we “shared,” meaning he bought it, and it stayed at my place.

This pretty much meant I didn’t have to worry about amassing cards myself, because I nearly never use them. They just look pretty, as there are always more cards than can go into a deck. But, as we get back into it, I think more and more about Arena, and how much I liked it. And wonder in passing if there are still MtG books. And of course there are. But now, these books are based on the sets; a new book is released to go along with each card set.

MtG: Morningtide

MtG: Lorwyn

And being hooked on MtG again, I get a hankering to read these books, especially the book to go with the card set that I had become enamored with, Morningtide³. Every time I went to Barnes and Nobel, I checked the shelves but it was never there. For Christmas, I ended up getting E a Fat Pack, which has some cards, dividers, boxes to match the set, and yay! for me, the Morningtide book. But It was still awhile until I read the book. Morningtide was a secondary set release, and it’s book, much like it’s cards, required Lorwyn to make full use of it. I didn’t really even think about reading the book until E bought a Lorwyn Fat Pack⁴. And then, of course I had to. So over a rather long period of time, I read them both. And thought they were rather good, actually. I could recognize some characters as related to specific cards in the deck, but I was really brought into the world that MtG has created.

I am not sure how this book world relates to the other sets of cards other than the Lorwyn/Morningtide/Shadowmoor/Eventide block, as I don’t really play past sets (though I still am fond for the Urza’s block), and haven’t read any other than the three books. The only part that really bothered me was the untied plotstrings at the end of the second book. The first makes you read the second (and the second really needs the first to make sense), but the end of the second doesn’t really end things. The world has changed, and the book ends right on the cusp of that change. And I’m nuts over the unresolved plot involving the Morningstar elf, who isn’t a card in her own right and seems to play a major if not understood or explained roll in the second book.

I could hope that the Shadowmoor book would pick up the plot, since that card set is  “after” of the events that occur in the book, but just reading descriptions online doesn’t really make it clear. Morningtide is obviously a book two (it even says it on Amazon), but Shadowmoor is listed as it’s own series, making it unclear if it goes with the previous two books. Being the huge dork that I am, I will probably pick up Shadowmoor just to figure out what’s going on.

1. It’s hard to tell, details are very sketchy on the MtG site. In fact, had I not ever read it and distinctly remembered it’s name, I probably never would have ever found a copy at The Used Bookstore in Chico.
2. Which, oddly, becomes a card type in the Lorwyn block of MtG. Because of this book, I feel very meta playing a plainswalker in my deck, when I used to be the role of a plainswalker.
3. I fell in love with the artwork, and then the way the set was played. What can I say. Distracted by shiny pretty things.
4. I won’t lie, it was mostly for the book and the “life counter.” But all E’s purchase.

The promotion was for a Marjorie M. Liu novel, Soul Song. It’s the sixth book in the Dirk & Steele series. I came into this book having never read a previous book in this series, nor any of Liu’s previous novels. It is a paranormal romance, and not one I would have picked up in the bookstore, had I seen it on the shelf. Getting an ARC was a great way to try out a book I normally wouldn’t want to spend my money on. I now have an urge to look up Liu’s backlist, and gorge myself on her paranormal.

Soul Song

Although Soul Song is the sixth in a book series, the average reader wouldn’t know it unless they had read the previous books. At no point did I feel lost, wishing that I started at the beginning instead of the middle.

Liu opens the novel up in a parked car. Our future hero M’cal² is a male prostitute—and a soul stealer. He takes the soul of the woman accompanying him, leaving her an empty shell of a woman who’s body will most likely die within a day or two. He doesn’t want to steal her soul, though, and when he’s through with the act, he returns to the water, and to the witch that compels him to do it.

Enslaved by the witch and forced to do what she commands, M’cal is powerless to stop what she has compelled him to do. The witch has demanded the soul of Kitalia Bell, a violin virtuoso, and a woman not without her own powers. Kitalia can “see” murders—she can see the violent manner of peoples death, but has no power to fight it.

On the night that M’cal first locates her, Kitalia sees a woman with a knife in her eyeball sitting in the front row during her concert. After the concert, she sees the woman again on the street. Normally she would ignore the vision—most people wouldn’t believe her if she told them they were going to be murdered, and she didn’t actually know when they were going to die. For some reason, though, Kitalia feels compelled to warn the woman, which in turn snowballs into the main conflict of the story. Caught in the cross fire, M’cal saves Kitalia from the woman’s pursuers, but informs her that he himself has been sent to kill her.

“I was sent here to kill you,”he rasped, jerking her around to face him. “I am still supposed to kill you. And I will, if you don not leave this place. Right now.”

She did not blink, though he could hear her heart fluttering, wild. “You rescued me.”

“No,” he breathed. “Do not trust that.”

M’cal is a Krackeni, a merman who can shift between his fin and his legs. There are other shape-shifters in the novel, some of who hint at backstory which is probably contained in previous books, although there was no sense of missing connections and references to previous novels. The conflict escalates, as does the romance, until both are resolved in a final climactic scene.

Opinion

Soul Song was a very well written romance novel. There were only a few places where I thought the description or narration could be more polished, but that’s to be expected in an ARC. The confrontations were believable, and I truly did not know which direction the story was going until we finally got there.

My only real gripe was the passage of time. According to the characters, who comment on it, the entire novel, from the moment M’cal first sees Kitalia to the moment they have defeated the evil witch, is only two days. Two days in which two characters who had separately sworn off love for different reasons fall so madly in love that M’cal actually performs a Krackeni marriage ceremony, which bonds him with Kitalia for the rest of his life, unable to take another. Granted, this gives them a connection that later in the final scene helps the two of them come out relatively unscathed, but at the same time it makes M’cal seem like he can’t learn from the past. After all, he was enslaved to the witch because he’d not known her very long and thought he was in love with her.

Until I had been informed of the time frame from the characters, I truly thought the book had taken about a week through time, which would have helped explain the super-fast, super-hot love affair of two people who from first appearances shouldn’t be together. After all, who falls in love with their hired killer?

Also, Liu drops in four shape-shifters, when after the introduction, we really only see one of them again. It appears that their whole purpose is to fill a car with non-human men, and thus convince the reader that it’s perfectly all right that Kitalia is in love with this man who can become a fish. Which is just silly, since the reader wants Kitalia with M’cal from the first moment he saves her.

Conclusion

While this isn’t my first foray into paranormal romance, this is my first encounter with Liu’s work. I enjoyed it immensely, and couldn’t put it down. I read it in one sitting, putting aside everything else I had planned to do yesterday evening.

If you’ve been looking to start a new genre—whether you read romances, and want to try paranormal, or you read paranormal and want to try romances—this is as good a place as any.

I really hadn’t expected to like it as much as I did; I’d had the book on my bookshelf for over a week, and normally new romances don’t last that long on my reading pile.

Soul Song will be available in stores next Tuesday, July 3.

Rating

[rate 3]

1. Advanced Reading Copy
2. The entire time I was reading, I misread this name. I know it’s supposed to be mm-cal, but I have a friend named Mi’cal—seriously, with the apostrophe and all—and I kept hearing my-cal in my head

It should be no surprise then, that my most recently read book was written in 1803, and published in 1818. Jane Austen has to be my favorite English author of all time. Seriously. The dry wit, and the acute observation of human nature makes Austen one of the few authors where I have to read the books multiple times to get the full depth of what she’s writing.

Northanger Abbey

Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

The first of Jane Austen’s novels was one of her last to be published. She sold it to a publisher in 1803, and when he didn’t publish it, she bought it back eight years later. Originally titled “Susan,” and then “Catherine” after she bought it back and changed the name of the lead character, her brother renamed it and had it published after her death.

Northanger Abbey is a parody of the gothic novel, a genre very popular in Austen’s time. Within the work it’s self, she mentions several gothic novels of the period. The characters converse about the novels they have–or haven’t–read. Also, when Catherine arrives at Northanger Abbey, she fancies herself in a gothic novel, and reads into things in a way they weren’t meant. Caroline snaps out of it when Henry comes to visit, and point out that life is rarely like a novel.

As many of Austen’s novels are, Northanger Abbey is an in-depth look into what life was like in the 1800’s, and what was expected of women at the time. A lot of confusion is caused by money, or the lack of it, and by the boasting of John Thorpe, who seems to be unable to speak the truth.

Opinion

I really liked this book. I liked the parody, I liked the relationship build up, I liked the way the “evil” characters get their proper dues. A reader always knows what to expect with Austen, and is never disappointed (if, of course, you like her other work). One of the things I enjoyed about this book, is that occasionally the narrator breaks into the story. Whether defending the novel as a serious piece of writing, or the character’s actions, the reader feels as if Austen herself has interrupted the story to clarify things that may go misunderstood.

I read this book in an evening, which although I read rather faster than the average person, is indicative of how engaging this novel is. I couldn’t put it down once I started it, and when I reached the end, I was loath to let it go. I felt a connection with Catherine that I don’t usually get with the female characters in the books I read. Austen’s description of Catherine matches how I often felt as a child:

“She was fond of all boys’ plays, and greatly preferred cricket, not merely to dolls, but to the more heroic enjoyments of infancy, nursing a dormouse, feeding a canary-bird, or watering a rose-bush. Indeed she had no taste for a garden; and if she gathered flowers at all, it was chiefly for the pleasure of mischief–at least so it was conjectured from her always preferring those which she was forbidden to take.” (Chapter 1) Northanger Abbey

Conclusion

The ending, while predictable, was still entertaining, and it’s a quick read, compared to some of Austen’s other works. Austen has a habit of wrapping up loose ends, and marrying off those characters who she deems worthy to find their happiness. And her characters do, falling in love with their betrothed in a time when people married for status and money, not for love.

If you’ve read and enjoyed Austin’s other works, there is no reason to not like this one. While not as polished as Pride and Prejudice, or Sense and Sensibility, Northanger Abbey has a quality about it that the others don’t seem to possess. Perhaps it’s because it was her first full-length novel, or because it was published after her death, Northanger Abbey is almost like an insight into Austen herself, pinpointing what she thought was important at that time in her life.

While usually considered a “female novel,” only interesting to those of the fairer sex, any reader who has interest in the time period that Austen lived would find this novel a great asset to deciphering the social hierarchies and morals of that time period.

Rating:

[rate 3.5]

It’s so boring around here that I didn’t have the heart to blog about nothing yesterday. Or, it could be that I just couldn’t think of anything good. Whichever you prefer.

I have been doing geeky things, but nothing anyone would really be interested it. But I’m going to tell you about it anyway.

I downloaded the Microsoft Office Beta a bit ago, and damn, it’s confusing. Kinda. Since I mostly use Word out of the bunch, that’s what I’m going to focus on.

The new Word 2007 menu bar.

The navigation bar for the new office programs is slick, but hard to understand. Even though I’ve been using Office since the dark ages, this new nav bar is messing up my mind. Things aren’t where they used to be, and it takes a little thinking to find them again. It doesn’t help that I haven’t really had a reason to create a document since the semester ended, and I downloaded the beta after that.

Options for where to send the file to. Including blogs.

Not that Microsoft made it obvious, but you can actually blog from the new Word, and my last few posts have been published that way. However, I really am not a big fan of how everything is set up. To start with, there is no way to create a blog post without opening up a regular document first. I suppose Microsoft is assuming that people will create a document, and then decide “hey, I think I’m gonna blog that.” Then, when you do choose to blog, it creates a completely new document with the same exact text. Pointless, I tell you. It should be seamless.

I think that if you open a blank document, one of those lovely little tabs should say “blog post,” and when you click on it, it should give you the options you need: publish, publish as draft, remove formatting, etc., etc. When you decide to blog, it shouldn’t make an entirely new document out of it.

Also, I’m a bit afraid to start in with the formatting on the posts. If I bold something, I have no guarantee that it’s going to convert to <strong> over something else. It would be nice if the writer was offered some way to see the HTML before the post, and insert some of your own. I’m unsure how to do lesser headings since any code you type out in the document doesn’t get converted when it’s uploaded . Also, I wish that formatting would be stripped from the <p> tags that Word sends from a regular document to a blog document.

On the publishing side of things, Word doesn’t have a problem connecting to WordPress at all. However, it doesn’t respond as one would hope. When publishing, it sets the timestamp to WordPress’s default, December 31, 1969. It’s rather annoying, because once you post you have to go and edit the timestamp. Also, categories are not supported, so if you’re using them, again, editing in the admin panel has to happen.

I think that if Microsoft wants to make Word a viable option in blogging, these changes need to happen. I really hate posting, and then going in and editing my post, and I don’t want Word throwing bad code after good. If you like what you’re using now to post, don’t even bother with Word’s beta.

I’d go back to Ecto if I wasn’t so frustrated with it too, at the moment.

—”Electricity,” 311: 311

I have wanted this book ever since Ann and Kay announced that they had signed a book deal. Released last March, this book has managed to make it to the top of the “must have knit book,” alongside other bloggers like Stephanie Perl-McPhee, and Wendy Johnson. And, oddly enough, there are actually patterns that I want to make¹ so badly that I’ve been eying my stash to see what kind of cotton I’ve got hiding in there.

Mason Dixon Knitting: The Curious Knitters’ Guide—Stories, Patterns, Advice, Opinions, Questions, Answers, Jokes and Pictures

Mason-Dixon Knitting, by Gardiner and Shayne.

Such a long title for a knitting book! I even left off the last portion of the title, just to save space. However, this book is worth it, and worth every penny (I think).

Kay and Ann met online in a Rowan Yarns online forum², and their friendship snowballed from forum messages to email messages, to finally a co-blog authorship. Long before they had ever met in person, they had won an eBay auction of old Rowan magazines, and had co-ownership of a piece of knitting history. Their online friendship blossomed, and they met in person for the first time at a sew-up bee for the Afghans for Afghans knit square drive that they sponsored on their blog. They took charity knitting to an all new level, and inspired people all over the world to send in knit squares to be joined together in a blanket.

The book is filled with stories and anecdotes that blog readers will appreciate. For all the questions I ever had about the two of them, this book answered.

The only part that irritated me a little is that it was hard to tell which one of them had written the introduction to each chapter. I suppose it’s to be expected, though, because it wouldn’t quite make sense if the book was written in the same pen-pal format that the blog is.

Over all, if you read their blog, you have no excuse for not buying their book.

Must Knit Patterns

Kay and Ann are famous for three things: dishcloths, buttonhole bags, and log cabin knitting. While the buttonhole bag isn’t in the book³, the other two patterns are, and with such variations.

I am looking forward to knitting a log cabin blanket, but I can’t possibly hope to create anything as good as Cara over at January One. If you think log cabin sounds boring, you should check out the photos Cara has documenting her creation of a blanket done entirely in shades of green.

Their dishcloths are so simple, I think about making one every time I see a picture, even though we don’t use dishcloths in my house. And the rug patterns which are based off the dishcloths, genius. Now I want to buy old tee shirts to make them into rag rugs.

I’m so very sorry that I can’t find any photos to post that wouldn’t break some copyright rules. I suppose I’ll just have to start knitting some of the patterns up, so that I can feature them here.

Conclusion

This book is a must-have if you’re a knitter. Simple patterns, clear instructions, and photos to make you drool over each and every project make the book as addictive as crack cocaine. I can’t stop myself from flipping through the pages, and rereading passages. That it is hardcover makes the book even more special, and the amount of detail in the styling is fantastic. Not that anyone buys knitting books for that, right?

Ahem. So, if you’re a knitter, and this book isn’t on your book shelf, you are completely missing out.

Rating:

[rate 4]

1. K thinks it’s funny that I own over 25 knitting books, and have only made patterns out of maybe five of them.
2. Where all the Rowanettes hung-out online in the pre-blog era.
3. It’s available for free on their website.

So, what I’d like to do is review books. Not to the extent of a book report, but something similar just the same. I’d love to review ARC’s but seriously, where am I going to get those? (so, if you’re an author, send me an ARC, and I’ll totally review for you).

The book for todays review was published awhile ago, and is a really well known author. I mean, who hasn’t heard of Anne Rice?

The Vampire Chronicles: Blood Canticle

Blood Canticle by Anne Rice. Published in 2003 , Blood Canticle is the most recent of the Vampire Chronicles, featuring Lestat de Lioncourt. It also combines characters from Rice's other works, Blackwood Farm, and The Lives of the Mayfair Witches trilogy.

Written in the first person from the point of view of Lestat and set in New Orleans, the story is slow paced, and not at all similar to how I remember any of the previous Vampire Chronicles. From what I’ve read online, this could perhaps be the last Chronicle novel Rice writes. After re-immersing herself in the Catholic faith, she “announced in a Newsweek article that she would ‘write only for the Lord.’”¹. However, there could also be another, more “literary” reason to why there would be no more Chronicles, however, I would leave that interpretation open to only those who have read the book, and see what I see (I don’t want to give it away, just yet, you know?).

Plot

Warning: Spoilers ahead. Skip over if you like to be surprised.

The story opens up with Lestat and Quinn in Quinn’s house, surrounded by mortals. They’ve just excised Goblin (a ghost) from Blackwood Manor, and the vampire Merrick Mayfair has just gone up to the light, burned at the bier meant to take Goblin. The residence of Blackwood Manor have no idea that their master Quinn is of the undead, and for the entirety of the novel, never know that both Quinn and Lestat, who is a frequent visitor, are vampires.

Mona Mayfair, 20, love of Quinn’s mortal life, comes to the Manor to die. She’s been wasting away for the last two years, and there is no cure. Quinn desperately wants to save her with the Dark Trick, but as he’s never done it, Lestat is very accommodating. He performs the Dark Trick on Mona, dubbing her Ophelia Immortal, and falls in love with her, as he does with all he’s created. After her rebirth into immortality, she acts like the typical “I’ve been practically dead for two year, and now I’m better than ever” person, and flaunts her new found sexuality. Unfortunately, she’s still trapped by her mortal wants.

Mona gave birth to Walking Baby, better known as a Taltos, which brought on her wasting disease. Her daughter was taken from her by Rowan Mayfair – witch, neurosurgeon, and head of the Mayfair family. The daughter is then taken from Rowan by an ancient Taltos, with the intent of recreating the race. Mona desperately wants to find her daughter, and has the delusional idea that having found her, they’d be one big happy abnormal family.

When Rowan sees Mona after the transformation, she realizes Mona is a Blood Child, although she doesn’t recognize that both Lestat and Quinn are as well. Lestat forms a plan to “exchange secrets,” that the vampires will own up to what they are, and Rowan will tell her story about why Mona’s daughter can’t be found.

After a long discussion where Mona acts like a brat, Lestat—who’s fallen in love with Rowan by now—promises to find the Taltos, and bring back Mona’s daughter. Lestat and Quinn extract a promise from Mona that she won’t try to turn her daughter with the Dark Trick, because they don’t know what the mix of bloods will do.

Lestat is really rather lazy, and his only form of looking for the Taltos is calling for Maharet to help him. She responds in an email telling him where the Taltos are, and berates him for not knowing how to use email. Mona emails Maharet back thanking her for the information, and they start emailing back and forth.

The rest of the novel progresses on as blandly as that, no real climax, no real fear of anything bad happening or anything like that. It’s an intriguing story, but it isn’t very exciting.

Style

Being written from Lestat’s point of view, it’s difficult at first to get a grip on just how selfish Lestat is. He goes on about his clothing, his love for everyone, how he wishes to be a saint, and a lot about Saint Juan Diego, beatified by Pope John Paul II. Lestat manages to annoy and intrigue at the same time, and the first person lets the reader feel like Lestat is really telling the story in a very personal way.

Conclusion

While this book was alright, it definitely wasn’t my favorite. I can see why some people have complained about, just as I understand why Rice wrote a response to the negative reviews² that were posted on Amazon. If you’ve read the rest of the Chronicles, obviously, this is a read for you. If you’ve never read the Chronicles (seeing the movies do not count), this is not the book to start with. The new vampires, the Mayfair family, and the story of the Taltos is enough to overcome Lestat’s storytelling style—and yes it is “his” style, as he tells the story.

Rating

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

1. Quoted from the Wikipedia article on Anne Rice.
2. Anne’s response to negative Amazon reviews. I didn’t read the negative reviews, but I tend to agree with what she’s saying here. Also, the line at the end? Also leads me to believe there will be no more Chronicles. I can imagine why (and really, it’s a better reason than what I thought. It’s all Lestat’s fault).

My sister has been bugging me for a week or to read The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chobosky. She gave it to me earlier in the month, after she had read it, borrowing it from a classmate.

Wow is all I can say about this book. It’s about the freshman year of someone who is different, someone who (I believe) everyone can relate to in one or another. The story is told through letters the narrator Charlie has written to this anonymous person, who he has never met.

The whole time I was reading it, I was thinking “I know how that is. Oh, I’ve lived through that. Yep, that happened to me.” It is such a heart wrenching account of a year in this guy’s life where he has to deal with his best friend committing suicide, his friends from junior high not speaking to him, and dealing with trying to “participate” in life and not just sit on the sidelines.

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who has ever felt like they were on the outside looking in, like they are the only one who feels the way they do. It’s just so hard to explain why this book is so good.

Ugh, just read the damn thing. It’s so short, you could probably finish it at the book store (and if you didn’t, there’s no way you would be able to leave it behind.)

And I really have not done any amount of justice to how good this book is. If you’ve got a chance, pick it up.

- “Am I Missing,” A Mark, a Mission, a Brand, a Scar: Dashboard Confessional