Monthly Archives: January 2014

book review, Fan Girl, by Rainbow Rowell

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Here’s the last one for tonight. Enjoy and go read!

Fan Girl, by Rainbow Rowell
This book moved me and touched me in so many ways, because at heart, part of me is so much like Cath.

Cath and wren are twin sisters, beginning their first year of college. All their lives, they’ve done everything together. Slept in the same room, gone to the same parties, participated in and written fan fiction for the world of Simon Snow, a series of seven, nearly eight books, featuring a magical boy at a magical school who has a dastardly enemy to defeat. But for the first time, wren wants to branch out on her own and has chosen to live in a different dorm in another part of the college and have a roommate, not her sister.

This is where the story begins, with shy, introverted Cath, settling into her dorm room, stomach in knots, wishing she could crawl into the walls and hide. But she has the comfort of her fictional world, with Simon snow posters on her wall, her commemorative busts of two of the main characters, and her trusty laptop at hand, when she is ready to work on her wildly popular fan fiction story.

The story follows Cath’s first year in college, normally not my kind of thing to read. Though she tries to lose herself in her fantasy world, to hide the hurt of betrayal she feels at Wren pulling away more every day, and her concerns about her dad being left alone, college life, and her entertaining roommate, start to pull Cath out of her shell, in spite of herself. She considers herself the boring twin, the uninteresting, weak, not pretty, but as the story moves along, we come to know that Cath is the strength of her family, is the nice one, the caring one, the one to reach out and help, no matter what. And people are drawn to her. But she never gives up her love of Simon snow.

Anyone who has known me for any amount of time knows I’m involved in fandoms, mostly Harry Potter, twilight and West wing. I discovered fan fiction during the maddening three-year wait between HP4 and HP5, when I was desperate for more. I don’t have or care to have HP or twilight posters on my wall and don’t care for any Edward Cullen commemorative busts! But I enjoy reading fan fiction, particularly the stories that give me things I didn’t get in canon. So when my friend told me about this book, fan Girl, I was intrigued and amused.

The book is about Cath’s college year and beginning to grow into her own person, but it’s also a spoof of or homage to the world of fandom and fan fiction. The Simon snow parts of it are hilarious. Yes, it sounds rather like Harry Potter, but the author is careful to make it different enough so there’s no crossing of lines here. But the book is sprinkled with references to things about fan fiction. At the end of each chapter,there is a brief section with either parts of the Simon snow story, or parts of Cath’s fan fiction story, or funny allusions to highly popular fan fiction sites. There was one section that was so close to things you see on the home page of www.fanfiction.net, that I laughed aloud. There are quick almost missed it sort of jokes relating to other fandoms. Such as one time when Cath asks her boyfriend if he’s going to sit there and watch her sleep, and he says, of course not, your name isn’t Bella, is it? A nod to Twilight there and the way vampire Edward who doesn’t sleep would watch human Bella sleep. Or as all HP fans know, the author, J. K. Rowling is lovingly known as JKR among most Harry Potter fans, and in Fan girl they refer to the author of Simon snow as GTL, her initials. Fan Girl is riddled with such things. And they make the book so funny, lightening it up when it gets sad in places in Cath’s life.

Having said all that, the strength and beauty of this story is Cath’s journey, finding herself, making friends, learning to step beyond her fictional second life into the real world. She deals with her father’s breakdown, her sister’s alcohol poisoning and a classmate stealing her class work, each experience helping her grow and become so much more than the terrified girl she was at the beginning. And so when the time comes that she has to make a decision to set aside Simon snow to do the right thing, the scary thing, you want to cheer her on and counsel her to do what we all know she should do. I’m not giving away spoilers to say that one of the last scenes is Cath and her sister, roommate and boyfriend standing in line at the midnight release of the last Simon Snow book release. Ah, I did that a few times. And for a blind person who had to wait sometimes years to be able to read the books in real time that my friends were reading, being able to stand in line to get my audio book of the last three HP books, right there with sighted folks, that was a special time for me, and so this scene in the book made me smile a lot.

The author of fan Girl obviously did research into the world of fandom, or has been involved in that world. And yet, though the book is a kind of spoof, it is as I said earlier, an homage to the world of fandom as well. People who make fun of Cath for it in the beginning come to understand and respect her for it anyway. Her boyfriend who has trouble reading likes to listen to her read the stories to him. I just don’t know how to express the depth and beauty of this book. People who turn up their noses at fandom and fan fiction may not get it or might laugh at me, thinking, hmmm, 50 something woman still enjoying fan fiction? And if this book was only about being involved in wildly popular fandoms, it wouldn’t be as interesting and wonderful as it is. Cath is someone you sympathize with. If you were ever the scared shy kid at school, or dreaded being out of your comfort zone, avoided parties and large groups of people you don’t know, wanted to cling to the few people you trusted and didn’t know how to cope when they went in different directions, then you can relate to cath. I was all those things. Shy introverted, terrified of groups of people I didn’t know, afraid to speak up lest people think I sounded weird, nervous and withdrawn outside my comfort zone. So Cath’s story touches the depth of my heart, the places where that girl I was still hides away inside the woman I’ve become. I want Cath to succeed in everything, to come out of her shell, to make friends, to be strong, to get the boy, and to finish writing her fan fiction. And by the end, you see the Cath who is emerging, and all you can do is applaud, because she’s come so far. I hope the author might give us more of Cath in the future, but even if she doesn’t, the ending of this book is satisfying and perfect.

book review, Frozen in Time, Mitchell zuckoff

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Here’s another great book. Check it out and go forth and read. and as always, you can contact me at [email protected]

Frozen in time, by Mitchell Zuckoff
Recounts the crash of three U.S. military planes-including a B-17 bomber-in Greenland in 1942. Describes the crew members’ struggle to survive the Arctic
conditions and the search for the wreckage of one of the downed flights seven decades later.

The annotation gives you a good idea of what this book is about, but it can’t describe the depth and intensity of this book. Its two alternating story lines, the story of the men who survived over five months following their plane crashing on a Glacier in Greenland in 1942-43. Nine men were in the bomber when it crashed. The story of how they tried to survive, how they held themselves together and the story of those who risked their own lives trying to rescue them, well, it’s incredible. It has all the plot elements of the great adventure novels, but in this case, the story is true. The other story line involves a modern day search for wreckage of one of the rescue parties whose plane also crashed and disappeared. The author was part of this expedition and writes with detail and excitement as the party makes their way onto that same glacier trying to find the heroes. This was not a book to read at night, because it kept me up for hours, wondering what would happen. Would the men of the B17 PN9E plane ever get rescued? Would they survive the months of cold beyond what most of us can ever imagine? How do they keep each other from giving up? And then there’s the deep longing and hope that the modern day story will end with finding the other plane that went missing in a rescue attempt. the utter courage and determination of the men struggling to survive, those who vowed never to give up till they could rescue them, and then the current explorers wanting to bring closure and bring their lost men home. The author was able to interview the families of the survivors and gives real insight into their personalities, the kind of men who would not, could not give up.

If you love a story with adventure, valour and suspense, but a story that is all true, give this one a shot. I’m so glad I did.

book review: Into the Storm, Melanie Moreland

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Into The Storm
By Melanie Moreland

Book Description
She is a woman on the run. Pain, loneliness and terror are what she is leaving. Where she is headed doesn’t matter as long as it’s away from the hell her
life has become.
Joshua Bennett is trapped in a prison of his own making by the memories of his past. Traumatized and isolated, he is a reclusive writer, living a quiet,
lonely life, his only companion his dog, Bear. It is what he knows, what he has accepted to be his life.
One dark night, one huge storm, and one ice patch brings them together. He finds himself with an unexpected houseguest with no memory. She wakes up a stranger
to herself and the man watching her. Even more mysterious is the lack of any sort of identification with her or in her car. She is an enigma to both of
them.
Trapped by the storm and isolated from the outside world, they slowly open up, learning to trust and love, until the world once again shows up, threatening
the fragile peace of their newly discovered world, and tearing them apart.
There are many twists and turns as they struggle to find each other, overcoming both the mental and physical elements that keep them apart.
A story about overcoming our fears, finding love and learning to live again.

My thoughts
The description sums up the basic plot very well without giving away too much and without touching on some of the finer details, things I loved so much about this novel. First of all, it is written mostly in Joshua’s point of view. I found this refreshing, because we didn’t get much of the typical female romance novel character attitude of low self-worth or not being good enough or jumping to the absolute worst conclusion before she’s heard the whole truth, things that always raise my hackles in most romance novels. But in this book, even though Rabbit—Joshua’s name for his mysterious house guest—has reason to fear, reason to have low self-worth, reason to jump to the all the wrong conclusions, what we see through his eyes is a woman of true inner strength, who grows through the story from the scared rabbit into a confident happy woman. And her strength is believable and realistic to me. Joshua’s phobia about leaving his property is touching, and the ways he works to overcome it made me want to cheer him, every bit as much as I wanted to cheer when Rabbit stands up to the one who had sent her running for her life in the first place.
And then there’s Bear, the wonderful, goofy dog, possibly my favorite character! He’s silly and protective and loving, just as a good dog should be. I’d like to introduce him to my own two dogs.
Joshua and Rabbit have some secondary characters that I came to adore, true friends who unwavering support was one of the strengths of this story for me.
The journey both main characters take into growing, into healing, into love, kept me reading straight through. I wanted them to succeed. I cared about what happened to them. I loved their little world and wished I could find them and say hello.
Overall, it was a great book, and I enjoyed every minute as I read. There was one thing that really surprised me, and that was delightful, being surprised in a romance. I applaud Melanie Moreland for giving us a story that is fresh, not overdone with angst, but with flawed characters, both male and female, neither being the super tough all-confident being that no real person is. I will certainly buy any future books this author may write, and I highly recommend this.

Eleven Years Ago

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Eleven Years ago

I’m writing this at about 9:20 AM on Saturday, January 18, 2014.

Eleven years ago today, at this exact time, and a Saturday too, Bianca came wagging into my life. I can remember that first meeting as if it just happened last year. I’d been waiting and waiting to begin training with a new guide dog, and on that day, at last, my in-home training was to begin. What would she be like? How quickly would we bond? Would she love me? Would I be able to be all she needed? Would we become one hell of a great team, kicking the world’s ass as we went through life together? Well, the time was at hand, and soon I’d know.

January 18, 2003
The phone rings. The trainer is at my door with my dog. Finally! How many miles have I paced in my rug this morning anyway? How many times have I played the Beatles song, Because, thinking how suitable the words seem to be on this momentous occasion?

“Because the wind is high, it makes me cry.”
A song of joy, a song of happiness. Idly, I wonder if I could play it on the guitar, though it’s not that kind of song and I don’t even have a guitar.
I grab the phone. Am I shaking? Seriously?
“Hello?” I sound breathless I notice.
It’s got to be them! It’s just gotta be them!
“We’re here. Let us in.” the instructor said through the tinny sound of the intercom.
Quickly pressing the button and hanging up, I tossed the handset on the counter and raced to the door. Well, the apartment is small, so there isn’t far to race, but still, I race. I open the door, turning my ear to the hall, listening, listening. Where is that damn elevator? Why is it taking so long? Wait! Is that it? Yes! Ding, the bell rings, indicating the elevator has arrived on my floor. Freezing, I strain my hearing, as if being completely still, motionless, will make me hear better and make them arrive sooner.
I feel that my smile will split my face in two as I hear quiet footsteps heading down my hall, accompanied by the unmistakable jingle of a collar and leash. Holding my breath, I continue to wait, standing perfectly still, not blinking, not even reaching out my hand. They turn the corner, and the instructor begins to chuckle.
“Well, good morning to you,” he says. “You’re not excited or anything, are you?”
If possible I smile even wider.
“Oh, maybe just a little excited.”
He stops a few paces from me, and the sound of the dog collar and leash is silent. Damn, I want to leap into that hall and grab that dog!
“Go on in and sit on your couch,” he says, “I’ll bring her to you.”
Pretending a calm I don’t feel, I walk to my couch and sit. And now, the anxiety falls over me. My stomach goes into knots, and the questions and pleas begin again to churn in my mind.
Please let her like me. Please let us get along. Please, oh please, let this work out! In the few seconds it takes him to cross the floor with my dog, the desperate prayers leave my heart. Did I say them aloud?
“Here she is.” He puts a smooth leather leash into my hand. The leash is new, still hard from the lack of constant handling. “Sherry, this is Bianca.”
Suddenly, my lap and my arms are full of wiggling dancing Labrador, and my heart is lost to this creature forever.
“Bianca, Bianca,” I murmur softly to her, as I run my hands over her. “Why, you’re just like a real live beanie baby, aren’t you? And you’re all mine, my very own Beanie Baby. Such a pretty girl.”
She’s wagging so hard that her whole body is wiggling; only her head is still as she burrows into me. Then she begins to kiss me all over my face. I laugh, and she wags, and the bond between us is locked, cemented forever. I can almost hear it snap into place.
She’s small, something like twenty or twenty-one inches and not even sixty pounds. She snorts and looks back at the trainer, then begins kissing me again. I continue to run my hands over her, feeling the movement of the air from her wildly wagging tail. I bend and kiss her head. I can’t help it, and I bend and kiss her head again. I love her. I love her!
“Oh, she’s adorable,” I say to our trainer. The joy and delight are ringing in my voice. “I love her. I love her already!”
He laughs too.
“I’m so glad. I knew you two would be a perfect match. Sit there and get to know your girl while I go get her stuff from my van. We’ll talk a bit and then we’ll go for the first walk.”
This is the beginning. From the first moment we met, and then from our first walk as guide and handler, Bianca is my soul mate dog. She makes me laugh every day we’ve been together. She lets me cry on her when I’m down. During the years she was my guide dog, she gave me confident and safe travel and a companion who is sweet as well as highly mischievous. There are times I think I’ll wring her neck, when she steals something from the counter or shreds another paper towel or unrolls a whole roll of toilet paper! There are the moments I weep at the idea that her time is limited. I would not change a day. I would not change her for anything, mischief and all.

Eleven years later, though she is retired and is now nothing but a pampered much loved pet, Bianca, Beanie Baby is still a joy to my heart and life. She will be thirteen next month, and I know that I have little time left with her. Her breed doesn’t normally live beyond thirteen or fourteen. She’s still in good health, a little arthritis, a little blind, maybe a little deaf. But she still runs to the door. She still wiggles and wags, dancing through life.
Thank you for the years and the laughter and the joy you have brought into my life. I’ll never regret any of the moments we’ve walked through life together, and when you’re gone, the memory of eleven years ago will bring tears, both happy and sad. My guide, my companion, my friend, thank you for it all, for giving all you had to me, and bringing me to depths of love, even at the worst of your times, that I never reached with any of my other guides. When you’re gone, I’ll remember and know how very much I was blessed on that morning eleven years ago when you came dancing into my life and changed it forever.

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if you read this and would like to comment, you can email me at [email protected]

I still don’t know how to get comments working on here proplerly!