Category: Cool stuff to read

Sunday readin’ and ruminatin’ tip

Hi, folks–

As some of you know, I already suggested unplugging yourself from technology (read that here) and yes, I am fully aware of the irony of me telling you these things while I’m online writing this blog. 8)

I do think, though, that it’s important to get away from all the crap that’s online these day. Sock puppets, trolls, freaks, assorted conspiracies, rampant unhealthy consumerism…it’s not good for us as individuals or societies. Currently, there’s a troll-fest going on over on one of the Facebook pages I “liked” and I can’t help but wonder whether the asshats who are trolling would say the things to people in real life that they’re posting online.

In some ways, I think not, but even saying these things online tells me something about the kinds of people they are. And these are some vile, hateful things that these trolls/sock puppets are saying. If they are, in fact, the types of people who would say those things to someone’s face as well as online, then clearly they are not the kinds of people we need in our lives. Healthy, happy people don’t feel the need to say the kinds of things these people are saying, whether online or in real life. And if we are to maintain a healthy, happy outlook, then we need to remind ourselves that words do have power, and everything we say is a reflection of who we are as people, whether in real life or online.

Which brings me to author Richard Louv. Read on to find out why I recommend you read this guy.

Continue reading →

by Categories: Books, Cool articles, Cool stuff to read, Things that might make you thinkTags: , , , , , , ,

This n’ That

Hey, kids! Happy Friday to all of y’all.

Just a couple of things. I have conversations with my characters now and again, and I post those. You can find the latest convo, with my character Chris Gutierrez (Albuquerque police detective) over at Women and Words. There are links to 2 other character convos I’ve had on that post, as well. If you’re interested, check it out.

HOT book tip, from author Nicola Griffith. The blurbs alone should make you want to check this out (if it’s your thing), but Nicola says it’s a rockin’ ride, so I freakin’ bought it. I’ll definitely let y’all know what I thought of it. And the book is: Queen of Kings, the debut novel by Maria Dahvana Headley. Cleopatra. Ancient Egypt. She makes a deal with dark magic for her dead lover Antony. And funky, chaotic, awesome, dark and twisted stuff ensues. Sort of urban paranormal historic fiction. Like Queen of the Damned meets The Mummy. Or something. How could you NOT want to read that?

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And there you go. Happy reading!

by Categories: Books, Cool stuff to read, ParanormalTags: , , , ,

Vonnegut interviews people he never met

Okay, so I was totally just going to go on off to bed because the ol’ day job kicked my ass today, but I found this awesome bloglink from Brain Pickings and I just HAD to share.

Here’s Brain Picking’s link, BTW.

So I’ll pimp Brain Pickings while I’m at it–irreverent, esoteric, and just a lot of fun stuff over there, like this post: “Kurt Vonnegut’s Fictional Interviews with Luminaries.”

QUOTE:
In 1997, iconic writer Kurt Vonnegut pitched an idea to New York public radio station WNYC: He would conduct fictional interview with dead cultural luminaries and ordinary people through controlled near-death experiences courtesy of real-life physician-assisted suicide proponent Dr. Jack Kevorkian, allowing the author to access heaven, converse with his subjects, and leave before it’s too late. The producers loved the idea and Vonnegut churned out a number of 90-second segments “interviewing” anyone from Jesus to Hitler to Isaac Asimov. The interviews — funny, poignant, illuminating, timeless, profoundly human — are collected in God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian, a fantastic anthology playing on the title of Vonnegut’s 1965 novel, God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, some of the best cultural satire of the past century.

Brain Pickings gives you a link to “Letters of Note,” which tells you a bit more. Here. I’ll be totally pimping that site soon!

Anyway, enjoy!

by Categories: Books, Cool blogs, Cool stuff to read, Coolness, The Awesome, Things that make you thinkTags: , ,

Cool reading

So there I was, skipping around the interwebs, and I came across this in The Atlantic: “Nearly 100 Fantastic Pieces of Journalism.” That is, a list of nearly a hundred articles The Atlantic listed as TEH AWESOME in journalism. You’ll find the link to the list at the end of the blog. In the meantime…

The articles are grouped by topics. For example, the first topic is “The Art of Storytelling” and in that you’ll find articles like Mariah Blake’s “Dirty Medicine,” from the Washington Monthly, which profiles the dysfunctional health and medical industry and how health care reform hasn’t changed a thing. Another is Malcolm Gladwell’s “Pandora’s Briefcase,” which appeared in The New Yorker. It’s a story about one of the most successful acts of espionage in WWII.

Or, if that’s not your thing, try something in the Crime and Punishment section, like Sean Gardiner’s “A Solitary Jailhouse Lawyer Argues His Way Out of Prison,” in The Wall Street Journal, which details how a high school dropout educated himself in a law library, confronted witnesses who testified against him, and proved the corruption of the prosecutor who wrongfully convicted him. Or how about “The Ballad of Colton Harris-Moore,” by Bob Friel in Outside Magazine, which traces the actions of a teen fugitive in the San Juan Islands off the coast of Washington, and how he made a mockery of law enforcement.

Perhaps something from Science, Religion, and Human Nature? Like Forrest Wilder’s “He Who Casts the First Stone,” about a militant Christian group in Amarillo, Texas that targets people and businesses with campaigns of constant harassment. You can find that in the Texas Observer. Or a story from The Atlantic about the first person diagnosed with autism, and what his long, happy life could tell us. That’s “Autism’s First Child,” by John Donvan and Karen Zucker.

And that’s just a teeny tiny bit of what you’ll find at this link right here. Each listed story has a link to that story, so browse, find something that appeals to you, and…

happy reading!

by Categories: Cool articles, Cool stuff to read, Things that might make you thinkTags: ,

Sunday Readin’ Tip

Hi, kids. This weekend has been crazy bizzy and I haven’t been the lovely blog hostess that I tend to be (HA HA!).

I’m finally able to sit down and give you a reading tip.

As some of you know, I read a lot of nonfiction and different magazines. I came across this essay in High Country News, a bimonthly western-based news magazine, called “Ghosts, Walking” by author Craig Childs.

It’s a painfully beautiful essay about a walk across the Navajo Nation. Here’s a taste of Childs’ absolutely delicious prose:

We change the way we move, try to make ourselves invisible, traveling away from animal trails through a busted topography of fallen cliffs and deeper canyons. In the evening, I walk by myself along a canyon made of soaring rock and massive columns of fir. It is last light, and the forest looks pointillist, nothing solid enough to seem real. I reach a water hole, punch through the ice, fill my bottles. Loping back to camp with fresh supplies, shadows grow thick and I move faster. Everything has eyes.

Here’s the link to “Ghosts, Walking.”

The essay garnered some controversy.

This author was not happy that Childs trespassed across Navajo land. You’ll see that letter plus Childs’ response at the link.

Writers like Childs collapse boundaries between built world and wild, between human and nonhuman, and allow us to feel the sting of wind, hear the eerie hoot of an owl echo off canyon walls, and feel the weight of time and history. And he makes us think about land and how we define it. So get a taste of Childs with this essay, and then maybe try some of his book-length works. Reading him is a sensory experience.

Happy reading, happy writing, happy Sunday!

by Categories: Cool articles, Cool stuff to read, Inspiration, Things that make you thinkTags: , ,

Awesome blog alert

Hi, folks–

I like to let people know when 1) I find awesome blogs or 2) I’ve been reading awesome blogs and should share.

This blog/site is in the latter category.

I bring you…

THE OATMEAL.

This is 28-year-old awesome Seattle dude Matthew Inman’s fine, fabulous, and frizzacious (no, I don’t know what the hell that is, but it sounds good) musings, sharings, and downright hilarious takes on everything.

Here. Just a few to get you giggly and thinkie. This one is Matthew’s take on 10 commonly misspelled and misused words. Click this. NOW.

High-lair-ee-us take on what it’s like to own an Apple product. Click. Seriously. Just do it.

And important pet tips: How to pet a kitty. Freakin’ click, already! KITTIES!

I love The Oatmeal. I hope you do, too.

Peace out and happy reading, happy writing, happy blogging!

by Categories: Cool stuff to read, Super cool blogs, The AwesomeTags: ,

Sunday readin’ tip

Hey, kids–

I read a lot of different things, as I’ve explained in the past. That includes magazine articles. I’d like to call your attention to a fascinating piece Rolling Stone mag did in February on former president Jimmy Carter. I wasn’t quite old enough to vote yet when Carter was elected in 1976, but I do remember some of the big things that happened during his administration.

I’ve always been intrigued by Carter because he seems approachable as a man, but also aloof. Enigmatic, I think, is one of the words I’ve used to describe him. He’s a mixture of idealism and hard, cold statistics and it seems he’s been able, to a certain extent, to balance those two things, especially in the years since his presidency. Currently, he’s engaged in some big humanitarian issues, and he has said some immensely unpopular things, but what I find fascinating about Carter is that he is a man of conviction — whether I agree with him or not — and he’s also willing to consider different angles and possibilities when confronted by different facts and situations.

This piece clarified a few things for me with regard to Carter, and I find looking back on people who were representative, to a certain extent, of a particular aspect of an era I lived through (in this case, Carter as a representative of a political context) a useful exercise in comparing what I was thinking then with who I am now and how my views and perspectives have changed or not. So regardless of your political leanings, reading about political leaders and figures is always helpful to shed some light on historic context.

Anyway, here’s the link to the piece, at Rolling Stone Magazine. It’s called “The Riddle of Jimmy Carter.”

Happy Sunday, whatever you celebrate.

by Categories: Cool articles, Cool stuff to read, Things that might make you thinkTags: ,

Pride and Prejudice and ZOMBIES!

Okay, it’s not a zombie apocalypse tip. It’s OMG a movie based on the book Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

THE REMIX of the classic Jane Austen novel, by Seth Grahame-Smith.

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Here’s the scoop on the movie, with director Craig Gillespie (Fright Night remake dude).

If you haven’t read this remix of the classic Austen novel, give it a whirl. It’s delightfully twisted, silly, macabre, fun, and kick-ass. You’ll see what I mean by that if you read it. OR you can even read it in graphic novel!

Anyway, this movie venture thingie could be a lot of fun. Victorian zombies. Awesome. So…I don’t know. Dare I say steampunkish, maybe?

Happy reading, happy writing!

by Categories: Books, Cool stuff to read, Coolness, Movies, ZombiesTags: , , 1 Comment

Another Sunday Readin’ Tip

Hey, kids. I recently blogged over at my other haunt, Women and Words, about “gambling.” That is, taking a gamble on writing and reading genres you don’t normally write or read. To that end, today’s tip is about just that.

Now, I normally don’t read horror or the genre known as “Bizarro,” but I met an author who writes in those genres, so I decided to read some of her work. For those not in the know, Bizarro is a mixture of the absurd, outlandish, nutso, crazy, on the edge (and often over the edge) satire. Some of it can be foul, sexist, raunchy, ribald, and downright offensive to virtually all sensibilities. Think literary Dada. Not sure what Dada is? Here’s a great definition from the National Gallery of Art:

Dada blasted onto the scene in 1916 with ear-splitting enthusiasm: rowdy, brazen, irreverent, and assaulting. Its sounds were clamorous, its visions were shocking, and its language was explosive. Yet Dada was not aimless anarchy. Rather, the artists were responding to the violence and trauma of World War I—and to the shock of modernity more generally—by developing shock tactics of their own.

That’s kind of how you might think about Bizarro. You could read it as a response to this freaky, modernized, consumer-ridden culture in which we currently exist.

So the author in question whose stuff I decided to read is Gina Ranalli, and you can find her here, at her website, and on Facebook. So I’ll totally promote one of her books here, which is Suicide Girls in the Afterlife.

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Here’s the synopsis:

What if you killed yourself and discovered that the “Afterlife” might actually suck? Pogue Eldridge is a woman who does just that, and she starts to realize that this Afterlife stuff isn’t at all what she expected. First, she’s required to stay on a specific floor at the Sterling Hotel until renovations in Hell and Heaven are completed. That’s the rules. Second, she can’t go up to the nice floors where all the rich people are. More rules. And third, the food isn’t that great, and there’s nothing to do. Death imitating life? Pogue thinks so, and along with 15-year-old Katina, who died of a drug overdose (another form of suicide), they decide to go exploring, and bring along some of the others they’ve met. But because of the rules, they can only go down in the hotel elevator. And once they’re in Hell, they can’t leave unless “Lucy” decides they can. Join Pogue and her companions on a seriously twisted, often funny, and macabre trip through the Afterlife, where a Goth Lucifer suffers from depression, Jesus plays video games and smokes way too much pot, and Hell truly is a crappy place to be.

There you go. It’s available in paper and on Kindle, and if you’re looking to stretch your horizons a bit into a genre that often flips things completely around, Ranalli is a great place to start. She effectively combines horror with the hilariously bizarre, all with a sly little wink at the reader, and she makes you think about what it means to be human, and how completely freaky the world actually is. Thanks, G! 8) And if you’re interested in more of her stuff, she has an author page on Amazon and as I said before, you can find her on Facebook.

Happy reading!

by Categories: Books, Cool stuff to readTags: , , , ,