2009: Sunday Salon – The Snowcapalypse Edition
So if you haven’t heard, some of us got slammed by snow this weekend…
Yes, that is 15 inches of snow. It started at home around 1:30 or 2pm, which lead to a rather hairy drive home (I left work at 2) that I would be ecstatic to never repeat. We haven’t had this much snow the entire year for the past few years. I’d forgotten what snowbanks look like. But, all is well, and our cars can get out (they finally plowed our road this morning). Though mine still has a snow mohawk.
I don’t have much else to say, cuz I’m saving all the good stuff for my end of year post in a couple of weeks. But, I did want to mention a couple of books I abandoned recently.
The first abandoned book this month was Last Last Chance by Fiona Maazel. I just couldn’t take the writing style — it was all over the place. And that was just in the first chapter. There just wasn’t enough that was believable. That doesn’t mean that you wouldn’t like it… It just didn’t click for me.
The second abandoned book was Two Brothers: One North, One South by David H. Jones. I was a little sad that this one didn’t click with me, because I’m sure that it’s quite good as far as the Civil War goes. The problem I had with it was the really stilted dialogue. I think the author was trying to be historically accurate, but I think you can achieve that and still have some life in your characters.
I just started reading Shogun by James Clavell. It’s definitely a chunkster, at 1210 pages and very small print, so I’ll probably be reading it through the end of the year.
Other than a couple more book reviews and some challenge posts (yes, more challenges!), I probably won’t be posting much until the end of the year. We’re going to Baltimore for Christmas, and I’ll be bringing my computer, so who knows. Scott is going to be helping his dad with some remodeling while we’re there, so I may have some time to kill after the Christmas weekend is over.
Happy Holidays to everyone! May Santa bring you a lot of books! 🙂
My baby’s still up there because of the snow. Of course, he uses any excuse he can come up with. Merry Christmas to you!
.-= Kathy´s last blog ..Our life in France – school =-.
The roads are pretty clear now, so if he’s still using that as an excuse, tell him to stop torturing his mama!
I’m sorry to learn that you abandoned “Two Brothers,” but I do understand the circumstance wherein some readers will have difficulty with the dialogue.
I do want to reinforce the fact that the “stilted” dialogue is accurate for the period. They did talk that way. To quote from the “Two Brothers” review by Craig A. Warren, Assistant Professor of English & Professional Writing, School of Humanities & Social Sciences, Penn State Erie ( http://www.1861-1865.org ): “The now-stilted language of the nineteenth century is reproduced in the novel with care; to his credit, Jones does not follow Michael Shaara in updating the verbiage of the war’s participants.” Professor Warren also says” “I can recommend David H. Jones’s Two Brothers to readers new to Civil War fiction and to those for whom the story of the war – no matter how familiar – bears repeating. Both groups will find profit in the book, less for its portrait of Whitman than for its attention to what the poet-nurse treasured above all else: the humanity that both shaped and cursed America’s most costly war.”
I wrote this historical novel with accurate dialogue because the story is very closely based on real people and events. My research delved deep into many original sources where I was able to read exactly what the participants wrote about their Civil War experiences. I thought this was worth preserving. Thank you for your acknowledgement that you’re “sure that it’s quite good as far as the Civil War goes.”
Just wanted to say I loved Shogun when I read it, but that was quite a while ago. Have a Merry Christmas!
I abandoned “Two Brothers” when I read it too. I got about 45 pages in and then there was an entirely unbelievable conversation about ‘hey, you know, this whole Civil War thing started when Abraham Lincoln was elected.’ Since I’d already been having trouble, that was the last straw and I chucked it.
.-= Jen – Devourer of Books´s last blog ..The Last Challenges I’m Signing Up For Right Now, I Swear! =-.