A Novel - 

I subscribe to many Amazon newsletters and lately I’ve noticed a trend in novel titles.  So many seem to have the words "A Novel" in the title.  What’s that all about?  One recent email from Amazon listed 28 books and 22 of them had “A Novel” in the title.  From their recent Spring Reading list:

At Last: A Novel

Norumbega Park: A Novel

Half Blood Blues: A Novel

The Cove: A Novel

Five Bells: A Novel

Iago: A Novel

22 Britannia Road: A Novel

In Search of Lucy: A Novel

By Blood: A Novel

And from an email today --

Delicacy: A Novel

I’ve Got Your Number: A Novel

The Violets of March: A Novel

 Have editors and authors have run out titles?  I’m trying to figure out what the point is – perhaps in the case of In Search of Lucy, someone might think it was a non-fiction account of the American/French archaeological expedition that found Lucy (fossil find AL288-1), so to let the reader know that it is fiction, the description   “: A Novel” serves a real purpose. Otherwise, why?  

I suggest a new rule for fiction titles:  You can’t use the words A Novel in the title if it actually is a novel.

Speaking of novels, I recently breezed through a young adult trilogy by Susan Beth Pfeffer: Life As We Knew It, The Dead and The Gone, and The World We Live In.  They were entertaining, if slightly stereotypical, disaster/survival stories (heavy on teen angst and soft on earth science) about a meteorite that knocks the moon out of its orbit bringing it so close to Earth that tsunamis, erupting volcanoes, ash-caused winters without sun, disease, and other bad things happen.   Without a doubt the best scene of all three books was in the first novel, a day after the moon gets close.  The protagonist and her little brother are in school, (Dad has a second wife and lives elsewhere) big brother Matt is at Cornell and trying to make his way home to Pennsylvania (spotty electricity, no cell reception, gas prices sky rocketing, planes grounded, etc.).  Mom and an old but dear neighbor go to the school, take the two kids out, and drive to the nearest supermarket.  Mom unloads a wad of cash that she took out of the bank (so fortuitous to have a wad of cash in your bank account), drives to the supermarket where they are charging $100 a cart.  “Tiger Mom” points to son – You get cat food and kitty litter, fill up the cart, put it in the van, and go back and get more. She gives similar assignments to the neighbor and her daughter: food, water, and so on – and thus the survivalist mentality begins. 

As I read this, I began to get a little worried about how I would react to such a scenario.  Would I have the presence of mind to get to the bank for cash, load up on food, over-the-counter medicines, batteries, water?  What else would matter in a disaster?  I began to search the web for survival sites and I found that for only $4,625 I could have 50 cases of tactical rations.  Each case contains 12 meals.  I guess that’s 50 weeks at almost two meals a day.  It has a shelf-life of 5 years, with a few exceptions like "cracker spread" – whatever that may be.  I would need one set for each member of my family, right?  We'd need more than a small wad of cash for that. Some sites sold self-heating meals, some warned that selling real military MREs is not legal and they might be spoiled or outdated, some talked about caloric values, some had payment plans of $150 a month, some had 50 cases of 12 for only $2,900 – but didn’t include dessert or side dishes.

So, as I said in my last blog… I guess I am what I read – but I have not ordered any MREs………….yet.

My Love-Hate Relationship with My Kindle

 Love It-Hate It

When I first read about the Kindle (technology-wise, that means in the Dark Ages), I thought I would never, ever get over the need to hold and smell a book.  And, if I am being honest, after years of usage, I still do miss several features about real books.  When I am reading non-fiction, I miss the ability to thumb back and forth very quickly and easily between chapters and sections.  I miss traditional notetaking in the margins.  Yes, yes, I know you can underline and write notes with Kindle, but when I get to my book club, I still come with a traditional tablet where I have written down my thoughts (and the location number on the Kindle).  Much faster and easier than trying to next page through my notes.

Of course, I also miss being able to really see maps and pictures, so if a book has a lot of those, I buy the actual book instead of the ebook.  How else to best see those wonderful illustrations “In Which A House is Built at Poor Corner for Eeyore” for example? I had to have a non-Kindle friend photocopy the maps of A Game of Thrones so I could locate Winterfell, The Wall, and King’s Landing while reading on my Kindle.

I love the ability to sample books at home (or anywhere, really) instead of vying for the three chairs in my nearby bookstore, which some people use as their personal library while they sit there all day reading through everything and then leaving a big pile of books on the floor!  Right now I have over 30 samples.  If I read about a book that even sounds remotely interesting, I simply download a free sample.  Sometimes it takes so long for me to get to my samples that I forget why I downloaded it in the first place!  Then I have to go back to Amazon and re-read about the book before I decide to invest any time.  I wonder what made me download Starship Trooper, Dr. Zhivago, Don Quixote, 1Q84, The Night Strangers, Nanjing Requiem, and Midnight Rising – all at the same time?  What could I have been thinking?  Drinking?

I recall the first time I really, really got into the whole Kindle experience.  I was home, sick, and watching daytime TV and every show and advertisement had something about the teen phenomenon Twilight.  They had the actors on, the author on, clips from the movie coming out, passages from the book being read, and, well, I was just so curious about the whole thing – so, from my sick bed I just turned my wireless on, searched for the book, and as their ads say, “In under a minute…” and there it was, Book 1.  It was childish, poorly written, really simplistic, and the minute I finished Book 1 (which did not take too long), I went right back on line and downloaded Book 2. 

People can no longer peruse my home library, thumb through books on my coffee table, glance at what I am reading in the airport or in waiting rooms – somehow that feels like a personal loss to me.  Where else to show off the broad and extremely quaint range of my reading habits?  I am what I read?

The Big Game

It’s here!  The day of THE BIG GAME.

               (Don’t you just love that? The NFL has taken these ordinary words “Super Bowl” and “Super Sunday” and made them registered trademarks of the NFL, so you can’t use them except for when they are legitimate “news” items or used in commentary, so they fall under the fair use doctrine, whatever that means.)*

*Warning: I am not an attorney or anyone who remotely has any training in copyright, trade marking, patenting, etc.  But I do love fine print!

It is a day of food, glorious food, and drink; a day that contributes heavily to America’s being, well... heavy. 

I imagine that all over this country, chickens (mostly the wings) and pigs (mostly the ribs) are telling those who have escaped harm that they are so lucky  - until next year.  Thousands have been sacrificed for our Big Game watching appetites.  Baked, broiled, BBQ’d, fried and grilled, basted, marinated, rubbed, battered, buttered, spicy, house on fire hot, cooled with a side of buttermilk ranch.  About the only no-no for today is steaming!

Of course, there are the odd-ball pizza lovers: deep-dish, thin-crust, filled crust, whole wheat crust, (no, I suppose that one is not for this BIG GAME-loving crowd), double cheese, double pepperoni, sausage, meatball, mushrooms, onions, peppers, and – hold the, pineapple, please.

There are bowls full of quaint and old-fashioned potato chips and pretzels, along with tortilla chips, tortilla bowls, blue corn tortillas, lime tortilla chips, nacho chips, lounging close to their pools of dip: seven-layer, guacamole, French onion,  black bean, hummus, and salsa.  Did I mention cheese?  Mozzarella, pepperjack, and Colby jack, Swiss, and cheddar? Fried, sliced, cubed, melted and shredded.

Don’t forget the drink station – Anheuser-Busch’s “Black Friday” – so to speak.   The STAR of the day:  BEER, BEER, BEER

TRIVIA or trivial: According to the Wikipedia article, “Budweiser”: In 1876, Adolphus Busch and his friend Carl Conrad, a liquor importer, developed a "Bohemian-style" lager, inspired after a trip to the region. Brewers in Bohemia (today's Czech Republic) generally named a beer after their town with the suffix "er." Beers produced in the town of Pilsen (today's Plzeň), for example, were called Pilsners. Busch and Conrad had visited another town, only 104 km (65 mi) south of Pilsen, also known for its breweries: Budweis (or Böhmisch Budweis, today's České Budějovice). Beer has been brewed in Budweis since it was founded as Budiwoyz by king Ottokar II of Bohemia in 1245. The name Budweiser is genitive, meaning "of Budweis."  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budweiser_(Anheuser-Busch)

There are also the lesser stars of the day: margaritas, tequila and lime, red wine, wine coolers, rum & coke, bloody Marys, martinis.  Take a pass on the Mimosas today, please.

Let the Super Bowl begin!  (So sue me, NFL)