Mount TBR 2016 discussion

1. Echo: Desert Run by Terry Moore (1/19/16)
2. The Burn Journals by Brent Runyon (1/24/16)
3. Echo: Collider by Terry Moore (1/27/16)
4. Echo: Black Hole by Terry Moore (1/28/16)
5. Echo: The Last Day by Terry Moore(1/28/16)
6. Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity by David Lynch (1/29/16)
7. Hidden Messages in Water by Masaru Emoto (2/4/16)
8. Under the Skin by Michel Faber (2/8/16)
9. In the Midst of Life by Ambrose Bierce (2/20/16)
10. Deadly Class, Vol. 2: Kids of the Black Hole by Rick Remender (2/20/16)
11. The Color of Magic by Terry Pratchett (2/27/16)
12. The Expendables: Stories by Antonya Nelson (2/28/16)

Finished Pike's Peak 2/28/2016

Good luck with your climb in the new year, Andrew!

Let us know if it's any good :-)

Fay wrote: "Let us know if it's any good :-)"

I'll definitely post my impressions as I go. I'm a big fan of my own opinion! ;-)

Your list reminds me that I have a stack of graphic novels that could count for this challenge! Good luck on your climb!

I love graphic novels, Sarah. I have a lot in my possession to read as well.

Seems like you are well on your way to tackle Pike :)

Thanks! Yeah, it's kinda slow-going actually, and I couldn't get into Olive Kitteridge like I planned, so it's still in the pile. But I have a couple graphic novels planned this week so the number will grow!

Almost half-way up the mountain!

Yeah, I got into a graphic novel kick and read the last four volumes of the Echo series in a couple days. So that helped!! :)

You might have to climb a bigger mountain soon! Great job!

I realize I should be at least making some comments on the books I read as I progress! Not just ticking off book titles. Sheesh!

I suspect I could be doing much better with this, as I keep getting caught up with books I have out from the library. I want to refocus a bit and make progress on my TBRs.

I finished the Terry Moore series "Echo" at the beginning of the year. It's a six-volume comic book TPB series (I think it was 36 issues when it was originally released). Very nicely done sci-fi comic book with female and male characters who are fun to get to know, and a concept that is very down-to-earth and yet familiar in the genre (science gone awry!). There's a scene in, I think, the fifth volume which is very much a guy explaining a scientific concept and even I found that engrossing. So yeah, I recommend it.

Read in 2016:
1. Echo: Desert Run by Terry Moore (1/19/16) 4/5
3. Echo: Collider by Terry Moore (1/27/16) 4/5
4. Echo: Black Hole by Terry Moore (1/28/16) 5/5
5. Echo: The Last Day by Terry Moore(1/28/16) 5/5

2. The Burn Journals by Brent Runyon (1/24/16)

My GoodReads review:

I realize I'm not the target age for this book, and I realize that it's memoir. I don't know if the book is the actual journal writings kept by the author or if these are recollections. It's very specific and play-by-play. There is much left unresolved, which I suppose is just like life. It does make the reading experience, for me, frustrating and unsatisfying. He hates all his therapists, which gets old and irritating after awhile, not because I don't believe a fourteen-year-old kid in his situation would be so resentful, but ultimately the narrative supports his adolescent sense of superiority. I'm offered no way out of this very narrow perspective, and through most of the book I felt trapped there. This for me points to a lack of reflectiveness in the telling, and ultimately I don't feel like I've been on a journey really. I don't know how this kid has changed. A major plus I do want to point out: (view spoiler)[the final section, as he's going to high school after so much time away from that world, I truly tapped into his anxiety, his vulnerability, and I was almost in tears. This part was a major success. It was indeed a nice crack in the tough-guy defenses we don't get to see past until that final moment. (hide spoiler)] 2/5

6. Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity by David Lynch (1/29/16)

A fragmented book of thoughts and philosophy from the great David Lynch. It's not a narrative at all, though at times there are "scenes," I suppose. I enjoyed listening to this one as an audiobook, because Lynch himself narrates it. He's so dry in his delivery, so loud and flat, that it's almost comedic at first. He discusses how much he's been helped by transcendental meditation, the danger of trying to hard to interpret the meaning of things in films, and other things. I really enjoyed it. I have no idea if someone who isn't a Lynch fan would like it or not. 4/5

7. Hidden Messages in Water by Masaru Emoto (2/4/16)

A disappointment for me. Not well written first of all (and I know it was a translation), and not entirely convincing. The writer stretched his logic out too much for my taste. I liked the theories see validity/potential there, but that's it...it was a handful of seeds for me to consider. I suspect he oversimplified it down for a general audience, much to the book's detriment. 2/5

8. Under the Skin by Michel Faber (2/8/16)

A book this well-written and well-imagined, and to think I almost gave it three stars for an ending that seemed like the kind of ending wherein the writer didn't know how to, well, end it. Some great themes, philosophically, left hanging. Yes, philosophy in reality is like that, but at least the character can come to some sense about it. Maybe something else about it will click for me later, but I feel kinda cheated. Seriously, though, up to that last bit, a darn good read. And disturbing. 4/5

9. In the Midst of Life by Ambrose Bierce (2/20/16)

I'm in a quandary regarding older, denser fiction such as this. I find I never finish these works if they are *too* dense, but I wanted to do it anyway, and so I downloaded this collection of stories from librvox. While I did actually finish it, it was incredibly difficult for me to stay focused. I had to supplement this experience by finding writeups, summaries, and reflections online to make sure I "got" the plots, which in the end were not very complicated. So the experience of this was messy, but I'm glad I did it anyway. Bierce was a brilliant craftsman of the language. And we, the readers, are to be participants in the appreciation of that language, because if not, if our attentions spans demand a Hollywoodesque display of distractions and fast-pacing, we will simply NOT experience what is at offer here. Of course, since I brought up Hollywood, I do have a parallel to offer: you may be, like me, tired of the M. Night Shyamalan style of surprise endings. Bierce did this a LOT. His tone is that of dark humor + horror, so perhaps such endings are natural here. And he does establish that tone successfully throughout (though as I said, my attention span was like a bratty child, making it less likely I will dive into much more on the classic literature shelves). I just started to expect that climax, that reveal, in the final sentence of almost every story. Don't let this deter you from reading his works, however. I'm glad I did it, but I'm equally glad I am finished. Lots of great quotes jump out (I found it impossible to refrain from sharing some on my Facebook page), and if you really dig language, I think you'll really dig Mr. Bierce's work.

10. Deadly Class, Vol. 2: Kids of the Black Hole by Rick Remender (2/20/16)

Intense and very violent, plus kinda nasty if you have a weak stomach, as (view spoiler)[one character gets his face shoved into a toilet overflowing with freshly deposited fecal matter, and that's not the only time poop figures into the plot (hide spoiler)]. These characters have had it rough in their lives, and they're still kids, so it's not like they're in responsible adult-land yet. So never mind morality, or clear thinking, or justice, or any of that civilized stuff. The world of Deadly Class is a mess, and it's a darn good thing the storywriting is so great.

You are almost at your peak! Good going :)

11. The Expendables: Stories by Antonya Nelson (2/28/16)

This book came out in 1989, my second year of college. I was 19, and beginning to embrace what became a failed hope that I would pursue the writer's life, specifically in fiction, and my first creative writing instruction at the college level was Antonya Nelson at New Mexico State University. It was from her that I learned quite a bit, including the somewhat earth-shattering news that there was such a thing as literary fiction. Literary fiction, to my not-quite-adult mind, was basically non-genre fiction. Later I'd learn about magical realism, and even later I learned about post-modernism, but one of the most difficult things for me to get around was channeling my imagination into a literary, non-genre sphere. I don't know that I ever really mastered that.

The more important message, though, something I still embrace and about which I learn more every time I explore the Genre (capital-G, which has to do with a different level of the writing sphere: capital-G for me encompasses Fiction, Poetry, Non-Fiction, Playwriting...and within that, you have Short Stories verses Novels, for example), is that short stories and novels are quite different.

I remember a conversation we had, about how frequently, if a novel can do the same thing as a short story, why would someone write a novel instead? I suspect that it has to do with "what sells" and that's even more true now than it was twenty-five years ago. Do people outside of college-level creative writing programs buy short story collections anymore, other than those written by Stephen King?

I hope so.

Nelson is a master of the short story. The Expendables was her first collection, for which she won the Flannery O'Connor award for short fiction (if you've read the other reviews, you already know this), and whose book jacket bears a blurb from none other than Raymond Carver.

There are a few occasions where the writer's hand is perhaps too visible. The most obvious for me is in (view spoiler)["Helen in Hollywood," (hide spoiler)] but even therein the content, if not the telling, is strong. Others may disagree, which is why I put the title as a spoiler. It would be better if you read it without my opinion coloring your experience.

My favorite part of the book are the penultimate two stories, the paired "Mud Season" and "Looking for Tower Hall," about a family recovering from the sudden and bewildering death of one of its members. There are many other strong stories here, and I certainly recommend it to those who like their fiction to explore (and thereby reveal) the humanity within the internal process of living, and questioning, one's place within the specific relationships people find themselves. I revisited the collection this month, and I'm so glad I did. I'm an adult now, after all.

http://darkmagnet.blogspot.com/

Nice work, almost there!

I finished Pike's Peak a couple weeks ago and didn't realize it. I checked a book out from the library (Color of Magic), forgetting I had an electronic copy! This is what happens with book hoarding sometimes. Sheesh. Okay, on to the next peak!

1. Echo: Desert Run by Terry Moore (1/19/16)
2. The Burn Journals by Brent Runyon (1/24/16)
3. Echo: Collider by Terry Moore (1/27/16)
4. Echo: Black Hole by Terry Moore (1/28/16)
5. Echo: The Last Day by Terry Moore(1/28/16)
6. Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity by David Lynch (1/29/16)
7. Hidden Messages in Water by Masaru Emoto (2/4/16)
8. Under the Skin by Michel Faber (2/8/16)
9. In the Midst of Life by Ambrose Bierce (2/20/16)
10. Deadly Class, Vol. 2: Kids of the Black Hole by Rick Remender (2/20/16)
11. The Color of Magic by Terry Pratchett (2/27/16)
12. The Expendables: Stories by Antonya Nelson (2/28/16)

Finished Pike's Peak 2/28/2016

Congratulations on finishing your first mountain! Good luck with the next one.