Because it isn't QUITE October, and I don't want to waste any of my lovely Halloween/Monster/Spooky/Creepy books yet.
Ninja Boy Goes to School
N. D. Wilson, illustrated by J. J. Harrison
ISBN: 9780375865848
Pop-art with a dual-story: artwork explains the reality, while the text gives the viewpoint of our ninja.
This one's cute, but a little on the advanced side for my group, especially with all the older ones gone off to real school now. Still, the parents enjoy being in on the joke, even if the babies don't quite follow, and the younger toddlers, know something's up, even if they can't quite figure it out yet. The text is short and clear, describing character traits of a ninja, and challenges in a ninja's life. The illustrations on the other hand show a very different interpretation of the events as they unfold, and make for some fun beats and contrasts. The art is vivid and blocky, and our little ninja kid is cute.
The Bus For Us
Suzanne Bloom
ISBN: 1563979322
This very repetitive book rises above its format due to the artistic choices and diverse cast.
Short and sweet. Gus and Tess are waiting for their bus to take them to school, along with an ever-growing line of extremely diverse children, as well as other drivers and pedestrians. Each spread is prefaced by a question: "Is this the bus for us, Gus?" and a hint of the upcoming vehicle. Inevitably, the vehicle is NOT a bus: it's anything from an ice-cream truck to a fire engine to a backhoe (why is a backhoe on the road in the first place?). The bus does come at the end, for a full line of waiting school children. I also like the totally unscripted side-drama involving a menagerie of pets and strays.
Minerva Louise at School
Janet Morgan Stoeke
ISBN: 0525454942
Minerva Louise is a curious chicken, and in this installment, she's visiting the neighboring school.
This chicken may get things wrong, but she's no dumb chick. She's visiting the neighboring school for the first time, and really admires the things that this "big new barn" has on show. While she doesn't see any animals (the kids are just now getting off the bus in the morning) she does see the farmer hanging out the laundry (a teacher or principal is lofting the flag) and she's gotten lots of inspiration from this great place. It's cute and silly, and lets even the younger toddlers be "superior" to this silly chicken, without ever being meanspirited. The series overall is a less tongue-twisty and much younger-skewed Amelia Bedelia, with blocky colorful deceptively simplistic artwork.
Tuesday, September 29, 2015
Wednesday, September 23, 2015
Nonfiction: Thirty Million Words, Dana Suskind, MD
Thirty Million Words
Dana Suskind, MD
ISBN: 9780525954873
Tune In, Talk More, Take Turns.
Suskind is a specialist who fits patients with cochlear implants. She is also, after a lifetime of watching some of her patients thrive and others flounder, a staunch promoter of language readiness.
Suskind uses this book to promote the overwhelming (and currently irreplacable) responsibility of parents and caregivers to use the first three years of a child's life to introduce them to the language they'll need to thrive and succeed in life. The thirty million words in the title refer to the landmark longitudinal study of parents from different socio-economic status: by the end of their third year, the well-off child has heard thirty million more words than their less fortunate schoolmates, and this difference profoundly handicaps the kids on the low end of the scale.
The first half of the book explains why Suskind got into this passion project, and details the science behind her drive. The second half breaks down the three Ts involved: Tune In (pay attention to and work in concert with the child's interests) Talk More (the more language you use the better, and specifically the more descriptive language and names of things and concepts), and Take Turns (language learning works best when the kid and the adult are in it together, and the adult isn't "teaching" or lecturing, or simply narrating to the kid).
Dana Suskind, MD
ISBN: 9780525954873
Tune In, Talk More, Take Turns.
Suskind is a specialist who fits patients with cochlear implants. She is also, after a lifetime of watching some of her patients thrive and others flounder, a staunch promoter of language readiness.
Suskind uses this book to promote the overwhelming (and currently irreplacable) responsibility of parents and caregivers to use the first three years of a child's life to introduce them to the language they'll need to thrive and succeed in life. The thirty million words in the title refer to the landmark longitudinal study of parents from different socio-economic status: by the end of their third year, the well-off child has heard thirty million more words than their less fortunate schoolmates, and this difference profoundly handicaps the kids on the low end of the scale.
The first half of the book explains why Suskind got into this passion project, and details the science behind her drive. The second half breaks down the three Ts involved: Tune In (pay attention to and work in concert with the child's interests) Talk More (the more language you use the better, and specifically the more descriptive language and names of things and concepts), and Take Turns (language learning works best when the kid and the adult are in it together, and the adult isn't "teaching" or lecturing, or simply narrating to the kid).
Tuesday, September 22, 2015
Tuesday Storytime: Bugs!
All bugs, all the time. We're getting into fall (hello equinox!) and that means that the temperatures around here get - lets go with "variable." This means that the bugs are desperate for some consistency in their lives, which means that they all head indoors, where people invariably shriek and scream and call pest control companies to save them from the multi-legged invasion. And so, my storytime for this week is born. Also I'm working up to Halloween, so I have to do all the creepity storytimes while I can.
I Wish I Were a Butterfly
James Howe, illustrated by Ed Young
ISBN: 015200470X
Atmospheric watercolors aren't the best for keeping attention, but the story is so sweet.
A young cricket is convinced he's ugly, until he speaks to his old friend the spider, who convinces him that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and that everyone's better off if you choose to believe the beholder who is actually your friend. A sweet message of beauty, friendship, and self-confidence. It is hella long tho, and the moody, dark, atmospheric paintings don't help hold the attention very well.
I Love Bugs!
Emma Dodd
ISBN: 9780823422807
Bold outlines and cartoonish proportions focus on all different types of bugs, including spiders.
Our narrator wants us to know how much they love all types of bugs in this super-short rhyming narrative that is heavy on the descriptive adjectives. By the end, we sort of get the idea, but our closer is a celebration of the thrill that comes of being just slightly scared of something. I like it because it presents fear of something (in this case, spiders) as humorous and thrilling, instead of something to be ashamed of or work through.
Some Bugs
Angela DiTerlizzi, illustrations by Brendan Wenzel
ISBN: 9781442458802
Funky big-eyed bugs feature heavily in what looks to be heavily textured collage scenes.
On first glance, this book OUGHT to be a lot shorter read than Dodd's I Love Bugs! but when I pre-read it, it didn't turn out that way. Granted, the text IS shorter, but the problem that I faced was that the pages are so busy and vibrant, and the text is placed in the smallest-possible empty space, and those spaces are placed in such very different areas of the page spreads, that I had troubles finding the text reliably with each page-turn. So this one was more of a stilted, stop-and-go, pause-ful read. Not that it mattered, because the images are so vibrant and lively that the kids just wanted to look at all the bugs anyway, but it did bug me a little (haha, get it?) that I couldn't read it fluently page to page.
I Wish I Were a Butterfly
James Howe, illustrated by Ed Young
ISBN: 015200470X
Atmospheric watercolors aren't the best for keeping attention, but the story is so sweet.
A young cricket is convinced he's ugly, until he speaks to his old friend the spider, who convinces him that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and that everyone's better off if you choose to believe the beholder who is actually your friend. A sweet message of beauty, friendship, and self-confidence. It is hella long tho, and the moody, dark, atmospheric paintings don't help hold the attention very well.
I Love Bugs!
Emma Dodd
ISBN: 9780823422807
Bold outlines and cartoonish proportions focus on all different types of bugs, including spiders.
Our narrator wants us to know how much they love all types of bugs in this super-short rhyming narrative that is heavy on the descriptive adjectives. By the end, we sort of get the idea, but our closer is a celebration of the thrill that comes of being just slightly scared of something. I like it because it presents fear of something (in this case, spiders) as humorous and thrilling, instead of something to be ashamed of or work through.
Some Bugs
Angela DiTerlizzi, illustrations by Brendan Wenzel
ISBN: 9781442458802
Funky big-eyed bugs feature heavily in what looks to be heavily textured collage scenes.
On first glance, this book OUGHT to be a lot shorter read than Dodd's I Love Bugs! but when I pre-read it, it didn't turn out that way. Granted, the text IS shorter, but the problem that I faced was that the pages are so busy and vibrant, and the text is placed in the smallest-possible empty space, and those spaces are placed in such very different areas of the page spreads, that I had troubles finding the text reliably with each page-turn. So this one was more of a stilted, stop-and-go, pause-ful read. Not that it mattered, because the images are so vibrant and lively that the kids just wanted to look at all the bugs anyway, but it did bug me a little (haha, get it?) that I couldn't read it fluently page to page.
Saturday, September 19, 2015
Nonfiction: Living the Secular Life, Phil Zuckerman
Living the Secular Life
Phil Zuckerman
ISBN: 9781594205088
Presents studies and historical counterpoints to the pervasive belief that secularism is dooming civilization.
Really appreciated the emphasis on studies and research, and on historical figures. The "case studies" with interviews from various secular people were also very interesting. Thought that it was a little bit of a gloss over a complex and interesting societal shift, but in a pop-science book clocking in under 300 pages WITH notes, bibliography, and an index (made my researcher heart so happy to see all of those) I can't really blame the author for a bit of glossing over sticky points.
A good read for anyone interested in the growing percentage of religious "nones" living in America (and to a lesser extent, in other countries, but the supermajority of the focus is American life and mores).
Phil Zuckerman
ISBN: 9781594205088
Presents studies and historical counterpoints to the pervasive belief that secularism is dooming civilization.
Really appreciated the emphasis on studies and research, and on historical figures. The "case studies" with interviews from various secular people were also very interesting. Thought that it was a little bit of a gloss over a complex and interesting societal shift, but in a pop-science book clocking in under 300 pages WITH notes, bibliography, and an index (made my researcher heart so happy to see all of those) I can't really blame the author for a bit of glossing over sticky points.
A good read for anyone interested in the growing percentage of religious "nones" living in America (and to a lesser extent, in other countries, but the supermajority of the focus is American life and mores).
Friday, September 18, 2015
New Arrival: Picture Book: The Emperor and the Kite, Jane Yolen & Ed Young
A very pretty new arrival today, in the form of a lovely collaboration between the very talented Jane Yolen and the equally talented Ed Young.
The Emperor and the Kite
Jane Yolen, illustrated by Ed Young
ISBN: 9780399214998
Young's colorful and precise "papercut" artwork counterpoints Yolen's savvy and streamlined phrasing.
This is in the form of a Chinese fable, but I don't know if it actually is. I do know that this particular story is older, and this is a newly-released edition with updated (and absolutely stunning) artwork.
Our Emperor has strong and able sons, and they are like the suns in the sky. He also has beautiful and proper daughters, and they are like the moons in the night. He has (but has pretty much forgotten) one final small girl child, who is young and small and quiet. When hardship falls upon the Emperor, his lauded sons and beloved daughters weep and mourn for his dire fate (from a safe distance, of course), but the youngest actually gets up and does something for him.
Sweet and pat, of course, but that's a fable for you.
The Emperor and the Kite
Jane Yolen, illustrated by Ed Young
ISBN: 9780399214998
Young's colorful and precise "papercut" artwork counterpoints Yolen's savvy and streamlined phrasing.
This is in the form of a Chinese fable, but I don't know if it actually is. I do know that this particular story is older, and this is a newly-released edition with updated (and absolutely stunning) artwork.
Our Emperor has strong and able sons, and they are like the suns in the sky. He also has beautiful and proper daughters, and they are like the moons in the night. He has (but has pretty much forgotten) one final small girl child, who is young and small and quiet. When hardship falls upon the Emperor, his lauded sons and beloved daughters weep and mourn for his dire fate (from a safe distance, of course), but the youngest actually gets up and does something for him.
Sweet and pat, of course, but that's a fable for you.
Wednesday, September 16, 2015
Graphic Novel Book Club: Superman Red Son, Mark Millar & Dave Johnson & Kilian Plunkett
Superman Red Son
Mark Millar
Artists:
Dave Johnson & Andrew Robinson (Red Son Rising & Red Son Ascendant)
Kilian Plunkett & Walden Wong (Red Son Ascendant & Red Son Setting)
Colorist: Paul Mounts (seriously good work here)
Letters: Ken Lopez (not so fond of the stylized capitals, but otherwise excellent)
ISBN: 9781401247119 (soft-side trade collecting all three volumes: Red Son Rising, Red Son Ascendant, Red Son Setting, with intro, marginalia, and process art)
Another month, another graphic novel for the club. This time we went with a well-regarded alt-universe Superman fan-fic: Superman Red Son. The premise (and a twist at the end) has our Kryptonian ubermensch landing in a Ukrainian communal farm instead of in cornfed central USA. The idealistic and straightforward hero absorbs and internalizes the ideals of the communist party, and sets the world down a very different path.
This is very much a alternate-universe "what if" scenario, driven almost entirely by plot gears, with only the bare minimum of characterization to flesh out our main cast: Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman (holy hand grenades, Batman!) Lex Luthor, Lois Lane Luthor (still a Pulitzer-prize-winning journalist), Bizarro, Brainiac, the Green Lantern Corps, and I'm sure I'm forgetting a few here and there. Before reading this comic, everyone should be familiar with those characters and their basic archetypes, because that's pretty much all you're going to get as they karoom around this inverted world and everyone makes pretty much uniformly bad decisions (often from good intentions) that drive the plot deliciously down an interesting path to destruction and difficult choices for all. A few well-placed heel-turns, a bit of shoe-horning in of characters (I thought especially Batman was shoveled in by main force and then tragically underutilized), and a bit of hazy plotting (was the somewhat extended Green Lantern diversion really actually necessary to the development of the plot? Discuss.) the story was overall interesting and fast-paced enough to keep me entertained. Besides, it's essentially an "elseworlds" story, so even if it was horrid, it's easy enough to fling back into the murk and forget about it.
The art was delicious, the forms and poses were classical and clear and well-defined. People had faces that aged and changed over decades of time, and even through the change of artists, the characters looked like themselves all the way through. A special shout-out to Paul Mounts for some really stellar coloring work here. There was a lot of black and a lot of grey and a lot of red, plus loads of stark contrasts that very easily could have slid into melodrama or cartoon, and he held the line excellently.
Overall, a fun excercise in "what if" that stands well clear of politics or economic realities to focus on the fun story potentials in a world only slightly different from our own.
Tuesday, September 15, 2015
Tuesday Storytime: Knights and Dragons
Yay! I finally have enough good knights and dragons books to do a storytime!
The Bravest Knight
Mercer Mayer
ISBN: 9780803732063
Mayer's signature art style populates a young boy's vivid imagination of knights and battles.
If we're going for straight favorites, There's an Alligator Under My Bed is my absolute favorite. However, for the knights and dragons angle, The Bravest Knight is so cute. We start with a trash can lid-toting boy, as he elucidates the many reasons he would love to live "a thousand years ago" (exaggeration starts early) when there were knights and castles and dragons and trolls. Until of course his imagination (and the fearsome troll) gets to be a leeeetle bit too much for him, and he's quite happy to be back in the safety of the present day.
King Jack and the Dragon
Peter Bently, illustrated by Helen Oxenbury
ISBN: 9780803736986
New Arrival, reviewed here.
Short and sweet, and full of imaginative play and cooperation and all the knights and dragons and beasts any kid could wish for. Perfect for storytime.
Me and My Dragon
David Biedrzycki
ISBN: 9781580892780
Technically no knights, but a sweet story about the logistics of pet dragons.
I've used this one before in pet-oriented storytimes, and it's so cute. We walk through a boy's fond imaginings of how life would be with a pet dragon, from adoption and vet visits to obedience school and seasonal activities (kite flying probably not a hit, melting snow from neighbors' sidewalks super easy). The dragon is bright red and expressive, with big eyes and a floppy rounded body, while everything else is drawn in a realistic style. I also have to say that I'm really happy to see that our narrator is an indeterminate brownish color instead of being white. A small touch, and never even mentioned, but it's gratifying to see.
The Bravest Knight
Mercer Mayer
ISBN: 9780803732063
Mayer's signature art style populates a young boy's vivid imagination of knights and battles.
If we're going for straight favorites, There's an Alligator Under My Bed is my absolute favorite. However, for the knights and dragons angle, The Bravest Knight is so cute. We start with a trash can lid-toting boy, as he elucidates the many reasons he would love to live "a thousand years ago" (exaggeration starts early) when there were knights and castles and dragons and trolls. Until of course his imagination (and the fearsome troll) gets to be a leeeetle bit too much for him, and he's quite happy to be back in the safety of the present day.
King Jack and the Dragon
Peter Bently, illustrated by Helen Oxenbury
ISBN: 9780803736986
New Arrival, reviewed here.
Short and sweet, and full of imaginative play and cooperation and all the knights and dragons and beasts any kid could wish for. Perfect for storytime.
Me and My Dragon
David Biedrzycki
ISBN: 9781580892780
Technically no knights, but a sweet story about the logistics of pet dragons.
I've used this one before in pet-oriented storytimes, and it's so cute. We walk through a boy's fond imaginings of how life would be with a pet dragon, from adoption and vet visits to obedience school and seasonal activities (kite flying probably not a hit, melting snow from neighbors' sidewalks super easy). The dragon is bright red and expressive, with big eyes and a floppy rounded body, while everything else is drawn in a realistic style. I also have to say that I'm really happy to see that our narrator is an indeterminate brownish color instead of being white. A small touch, and never even mentioned, but it's gratifying to see.
Thursday, September 10, 2015
Tuesday Storytime: Sibling Relations
Another one that I have missed this year - I think this is my worst year to date for missing storytimes. I took care to give my replacement a good fun set of reads.
Mission: New Baby
Susan Hood, illustrated by Mary Lundquist
ISBN: 9780385376723
Vignettes and "snapshots" of life with a baby sibling, with a military/special ops flair.
Our main character is a tousle-haired white boy and his family, but we get vignettes from other diverse "recruits" as they also assist with their new siblings. Everything from bathtime to storytime is presented as a military or espionage exercise, with the conceit that the established "operative" (the new big brother/sister) has been tasked with training the new "recruit" (the baby sibling) by teaching them the ropes. There's not much to it, but it's super cute.
Rodeo Red
Maripat Perkins, illustrated by Molly Idle
ISBN: 9781561458165
Previously reviewed here.
I still love this one, and it's the reason I went with this particular theme. I'm happy to report that the storyteller and the audience loved it to pieces as well.
Peace, Baby!
Linda Ashman, illustrated by Joanne Lew-Vriethoff
ISBN: 9781452106137
Diverse characters, soft colors, and expressive poses and faces.
This one sits up with Llama Llama for the very clear, child-level message - choose kindness, choose to work together, choose to be gentle, choose to forgive. This one isn't entirely about family and siblings, but the lesson certainly applies there, and several of the scenarios pictured could be of sibling sets.
Mission: New Baby
Susan Hood, illustrated by Mary Lundquist
ISBN: 9780385376723
Vignettes and "snapshots" of life with a baby sibling, with a military/special ops flair.
Our main character is a tousle-haired white boy and his family, but we get vignettes from other diverse "recruits" as they also assist with their new siblings. Everything from bathtime to storytime is presented as a military or espionage exercise, with the conceit that the established "operative" (the new big brother/sister) has been tasked with training the new "recruit" (the baby sibling) by teaching them the ropes. There's not much to it, but it's super cute.
Rodeo Red
Maripat Perkins, illustrated by Molly Idle
ISBN: 9781561458165
Previously reviewed here.
I still love this one, and it's the reason I went with this particular theme. I'm happy to report that the storyteller and the audience loved it to pieces as well.
Peace, Baby!
Linda Ashman, illustrated by Joanne Lew-Vriethoff
ISBN: 9781452106137
Diverse characters, soft colors, and expressive poses and faces.
This one sits up with Llama Llama for the very clear, child-level message - choose kindness, choose to work together, choose to be gentle, choose to forgive. This one isn't entirely about family and siblings, but the lesson certainly applies there, and several of the scenarios pictured could be of sibling sets.
Wednesday, September 9, 2015
The New Annotated H. P. Lovecraft, edited and annoated by Leslie S. Klinger
The New Annotated H. P. Lovecraft
Editor, annotator: Leslie S. Klinger
Norton & Co
ISBN: 9780871404534
852 pages.
Collection of most of Lovecraft's "Arkham Cycle" stories, from Dagon to the Haunter of the Dark.
Read ALL FREAKING SUMMER
Confession. I've never actually read any Lovecraft, other than At the Mountains of Madness and The Call of Cthulhu. This is a fantastic way to have remedied that oversight. The collection puts them all in roughly chronological order, and only includes the stories that have major elements of what Klinger calls the "Arkham Cycle" of nebulous mythology. (Interesting discovery that the idea of a coherent and complete "Cthulhu Mythos" was more likely the hero-worshipping tendencies of the young author who oversaw the preservation of Lovecraft's legacy.)
Anyway - if you like Lovecraft, or enjoy a good annotation (don't be ashamed to admit it - I've got my eye on that Laura Ingalls Wilder annotated autobiography Pioneer Girl next...) then this is an excellent collection. Just be warned. It's a freaking TOME, and it's heavy and awkward as hell. This is a desk read if I ever saw one.
Stories: great fun, occasionally a bit overwrought. Not actually frightening, which was a bit unexpected. He name-dropped his own mythos and his own stories (and to be fair, the mythos, characters, and stories of other authors) with truly astounding frequency. Not much for subtlety.
Annotations: usually very interesting, occasionally a bit too densely architectural or local-history-centric. Really drove home the amount of research (or, alternatively, the really terrifying amount of arcane science and historical knowledge) that went into writing; setting these stories in superbly realistic, everyday, mundane surroundings, up to and including citing recent scientific discoveries and having accurate moon phases referenced ALL THE TIME (I'm giving Tolkien a dirty look here).
Author: (ie Lovecraft) blazing racist asshat with really severe anxiety about progress and "otherness." Lots of weird fascination with the size and scope of the universe, and of our solar system, and humanity's relative un-importance in relation to that. Lots of body horror. Overly concerned with inhuman things coming out of the ocean or from space, from what we now know as the Kuiper Belt.
So, that's Lovecraft for me done.
Now I really want to go out and hit up Klinger's Annotated Sherlock and Annotated Sandman. I'll leave you with a lovely link to a really nice interview by Klinger and Neil Gaiman about Lovecraft and the New Annotated collection.
Editor, annotator: Leslie S. Klinger
Norton & Co
ISBN: 9780871404534
852 pages.
Collection of most of Lovecraft's "Arkham Cycle" stories, from Dagon to the Haunter of the Dark.
Read ALL FREAKING SUMMER
Confession. I've never actually read any Lovecraft, other than At the Mountains of Madness and The Call of Cthulhu. This is a fantastic way to have remedied that oversight. The collection puts them all in roughly chronological order, and only includes the stories that have major elements of what Klinger calls the "Arkham Cycle" of nebulous mythology. (Interesting discovery that the idea of a coherent and complete "Cthulhu Mythos" was more likely the hero-worshipping tendencies of the young author who oversaw the preservation of Lovecraft's legacy.)
Anyway - if you like Lovecraft, or enjoy a good annotation (don't be ashamed to admit it - I've got my eye on that Laura Ingalls Wilder annotated autobiography Pioneer Girl next...) then this is an excellent collection. Just be warned. It's a freaking TOME, and it's heavy and awkward as hell. This is a desk read if I ever saw one.
Stories: great fun, occasionally a bit overwrought. Not actually frightening, which was a bit unexpected. He name-dropped his own mythos and his own stories (and to be fair, the mythos, characters, and stories of other authors) with truly astounding frequency. Not much for subtlety.
Annotations: usually very interesting, occasionally a bit too densely architectural or local-history-centric. Really drove home the amount of research (or, alternatively, the really terrifying amount of arcane science and historical knowledge) that went into writing; setting these stories in superbly realistic, everyday, mundane surroundings, up to and including citing recent scientific discoveries and having accurate moon phases referenced ALL THE TIME (I'm giving Tolkien a dirty look here).
Author: (ie Lovecraft) blazing racist asshat with really severe anxiety about progress and "otherness." Lots of weird fascination with the size and scope of the universe, and of our solar system, and humanity's relative un-importance in relation to that. Lots of body horror. Overly concerned with inhuman things coming out of the ocean or from space, from what we now know as the Kuiper Belt.
So, that's Lovecraft for me done.
Now I really want to go out and hit up Klinger's Annotated Sherlock and Annotated Sandman. I'll leave you with a lovely link to a really nice interview by Klinger and Neil Gaiman about Lovecraft and the New Annotated collection.
Tuesday, September 8, 2015
Fantasy: Short Stories: Old Venus, edited by George R. R. Martin and Gardner Dozois
Old Venus
Edited by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois
Stories by Allen M. Steele,
Lavie Tidhar,
Paul McAuley,
Matthew Hughes,
Gwyneth Jones,
Joe Haldeman,
Stephen Leigh,
Eleanor Arnason,
David Brin,
Garth Nix,
Michael Cassutt,
Tobias Bucknell,
Elizabeth Bear,
Joe R. Lansdale,
Mike Resnick,
Ian McDonald
ISBN: 9780345537287
Short Story Collection:
Read June 2015
This collection asks modern fantasy and sf authors to imagine that Venus was actually the
steamy jungle (or water) world it was imagined to be in the pulp sf years, and write new stories set in that mythical world. And did they ever deliver!
Allen M. Steele's Frogheads takes us to an ocean world where the locals are very fond of chocolate, and the Russian bureaucracy is still shaking off the accumulated inertia of failed communism. We follow a jaded and taicturn PI searching for the missing son of a rich shipping magnate, and he finds that the son isn't exactly missing.
Lavie Tidhar then gives us the seriously creeptastic and more-than-slightly-Lovecraftian The Drowned Celestial, where our hero is dragooned into a sinister cult, but on the flip side, manages to find a lover! Bonus points for the Aztec link.
Paul McAuley's Planet of Fear pits a tenacious scientist against a war-mad general who is convinced that the evil Americans are plotting against him. And of course a science outpost filled with evidence of crazy people, and lots of dead pigs.
We get my favorite story of the collection, Greeves and the Evening Star, from Matthew Hughes. This was a Jeevsian romp through the most politest of society gentlemen as they attempt to wrap their heads around the amorous advances of a most persuasive and persistent Venusian. Hughes language nearly killed me in this story, and it's the only one that I've gone back and re-read. Just as enjoyable the second go round.
A Planet Called Desire, by Gwyneth Jones, was strange. It had the bones of a white colonial "Crocodile Dundee" sort of story, but the lead driver of the action was an enigmatic scientist mired in regnal red tape, and it resolves itself with a lingering creepy hope. Extra points for being one of the only stories to delve into teleportaton.
Joe Haldeman gives a short creepy first-contact sort of story set in a truly nasty jungle Venus. Living Hell is a perfect descriptor of a place where everything seems designed to do horrible damage to humans. We arrive mid-crisis, as our rescue pilot attempts a desperate rescue of a science outpost that has been cut off due to a giant solar flare. Our pilot is about to get real close and uncomfortable with the biota.
Bones of Air, Bones of Stone, is Stephen Leigh's contribution to oceanic Venus lore, with a strange tale of a pair of ex-lovers united and driven apart by the urge to conquer the extreme - do what's never been done. Here, it's the Great Darkness, a huge pit of deep black water that laughs at the Marianas Trench. Complicating matters is the lore of the locals, who believe that oceanic darkness to be their sacred resting place, and forbid anyone from diving there.
Eleanor Arnason also likes the idea of Communists on Venus, and Ruins gives us a National Geographic meets Washington Post intrigue featuring a team of scientists and explorers, and yes, a National Geographic photography team, complete with "Autonomous Leica. My model name is AL-26. My personal name is Margaret, in honor of the twentieth-century photographer Margaret Bourke White. You may call me Maggie." which juust about killed me. They're headed into the back country in search of a persistent rumor about ancient ruins, but they discover something a lot more sinister.
The Tumbledowns of Cleopatra Abyss by David Brin was my second favorite story, and also the second-best serious tale in the bunch. I was in awe of this story the whole time I was reading, and I'm still in awe at how well it all flowed. I can't say much without destroying the impact, but the tale reminds me that even when things go badly wrong, life finds a way. So very very good.
Garth Nix gives military sf a whirl with By Frogsled and Lizardback to Outcast Venusian Lepers, which, really, that title is just about all you need to know about this story. Oh, and clones. And military draft rules. And really colorful personal fungi.
The Sunset of Time didn't quite work well for me. Michael Cassutt gives it a good shot, and the story is interesting, but the weird parentheticals took too long to be explained, and the characters never quite gelled for me. Earth has gone all Handmaid's Tale, and deviants are shipped out to exile on sinful Venus. The natives are prepping for their regularly scheduled End Times, but humanity just keeps tootling along, although our protagonist Jor is beginning to have his concerns.
We follow that one up with a gut-punch of a story, beautifully and hauntingly told by Tobias S. Buckell. Pale Blue Memories has a light-skinned black member of the exploratory astronaut team narrate the horrible, but oh-so-human consequences of his team's ill-fated Venus landing. Painful to read, but so very well done.
Elizabeth Bear follows this one up with a tale of a bruised spirit who takes refuge in death-defying exploration - far away from her perfect and overbearing co-worker and lover. The Heart's Filthy Lesson balances the pain of jealousy with the overwhelming ecstasy of discovering new places and pushing your limits.
The Wizard of the Trees is John Carter of Venus, and god bless Joe R. Lansdale for giving him to us. Unlike Carter, our hero is plucked from his world by a slimy glowing thing, and chucked into a muddy hot pool. Things don't get much prettier from there, but Jack Davis, our intrepid US Buffalo Soldier, isn't afraid of a challenge. He even has a kick-ass princess encounter of his own!
Mike Resnick works from the same basic story structure as Tidhar, but The Godstone of Venus is a lot less Lovecraft and a lot more Indiana Jones. A merc and his partner are picked up by really strange clients in a run-down bar. The partner can't read the lady's mind, which is odd, because he can read anything's mind. They're on a quest for an artifact that can't exist, and things only get weirder from there.
Our last story is, in my opinion, the absolute best. Ian McDonald delivers to us Botanica Veneris: Thirteen Papercuts by Ida Countess Rathangan. It was absolutely and incontrovertably perfection. I loved the conceit, I loved the execution, the story was gripping, and the mystery was lovely. Utterly, utterly delightful.
Edited by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois
Stories by Allen M. Steele,
Lavie Tidhar,
Paul McAuley,
Matthew Hughes,
Gwyneth Jones,
Joe Haldeman,
Stephen Leigh,
Eleanor Arnason,
David Brin,
Garth Nix,
Michael Cassutt,
Tobias Bucknell,
Elizabeth Bear,
Joe R. Lansdale,
Mike Resnick,
Ian McDonald
ISBN: 9780345537287
Short Story Collection:
Read June 2015
This collection asks modern fantasy and sf authors to imagine that Venus was actually the
steamy jungle (or water) world it was imagined to be in the pulp sf years, and write new stories set in that mythical world. And did they ever deliver!
Allen M. Steele's Frogheads takes us to an ocean world where the locals are very fond of chocolate, and the Russian bureaucracy is still shaking off the accumulated inertia of failed communism. We follow a jaded and taicturn PI searching for the missing son of a rich shipping magnate, and he finds that the son isn't exactly missing.
Lavie Tidhar then gives us the seriously creeptastic and more-than-slightly-Lovecraftian The Drowned Celestial, where our hero is dragooned into a sinister cult, but on the flip side, manages to find a lover! Bonus points for the Aztec link.
Paul McAuley's Planet of Fear pits a tenacious scientist against a war-mad general who is convinced that the evil Americans are plotting against him. And of course a science outpost filled with evidence of crazy people, and lots of dead pigs.
We get my favorite story of the collection, Greeves and the Evening Star, from Matthew Hughes. This was a Jeevsian romp through the most politest of society gentlemen as they attempt to wrap their heads around the amorous advances of a most persuasive and persistent Venusian. Hughes language nearly killed me in this story, and it's the only one that I've gone back and re-read. Just as enjoyable the second go round.
A Planet Called Desire, by Gwyneth Jones, was strange. It had the bones of a white colonial "Crocodile Dundee" sort of story, but the lead driver of the action was an enigmatic scientist mired in regnal red tape, and it resolves itself with a lingering creepy hope. Extra points for being one of the only stories to delve into teleportaton.
Joe Haldeman gives a short creepy first-contact sort of story set in a truly nasty jungle Venus. Living Hell is a perfect descriptor of a place where everything seems designed to do horrible damage to humans. We arrive mid-crisis, as our rescue pilot attempts a desperate rescue of a science outpost that has been cut off due to a giant solar flare. Our pilot is about to get real close and uncomfortable with the biota.
Bones of Air, Bones of Stone, is Stephen Leigh's contribution to oceanic Venus lore, with a strange tale of a pair of ex-lovers united and driven apart by the urge to conquer the extreme - do what's never been done. Here, it's the Great Darkness, a huge pit of deep black water that laughs at the Marianas Trench. Complicating matters is the lore of the locals, who believe that oceanic darkness to be their sacred resting place, and forbid anyone from diving there.
Eleanor Arnason also likes the idea of Communists on Venus, and Ruins gives us a National Geographic meets Washington Post intrigue featuring a team of scientists and explorers, and yes, a National Geographic photography team, complete with "Autonomous Leica. My model name is AL-26. My personal name is Margaret, in honor of the twentieth-century photographer Margaret Bourke White. You may call me Maggie." which juust about killed me. They're headed into the back country in search of a persistent rumor about ancient ruins, but they discover something a lot more sinister.
The Tumbledowns of Cleopatra Abyss by David Brin was my second favorite story, and also the second-best serious tale in the bunch. I was in awe of this story the whole time I was reading, and I'm still in awe at how well it all flowed. I can't say much without destroying the impact, but the tale reminds me that even when things go badly wrong, life finds a way. So very very good.
Garth Nix gives military sf a whirl with By Frogsled and Lizardback to Outcast Venusian Lepers, which, really, that title is just about all you need to know about this story. Oh, and clones. And military draft rules. And really colorful personal fungi.
The Sunset of Time didn't quite work well for me. Michael Cassutt gives it a good shot, and the story is interesting, but the weird parentheticals took too long to be explained, and the characters never quite gelled for me. Earth has gone all Handmaid's Tale, and deviants are shipped out to exile on sinful Venus. The natives are prepping for their regularly scheduled End Times, but humanity just keeps tootling along, although our protagonist Jor is beginning to have his concerns.
We follow that one up with a gut-punch of a story, beautifully and hauntingly told by Tobias S. Buckell. Pale Blue Memories has a light-skinned black member of the exploratory astronaut team narrate the horrible, but oh-so-human consequences of his team's ill-fated Venus landing. Painful to read, but so very well done.
Elizabeth Bear follows this one up with a tale of a bruised spirit who takes refuge in death-defying exploration - far away from her perfect and overbearing co-worker and lover. The Heart's Filthy Lesson balances the pain of jealousy with the overwhelming ecstasy of discovering new places and pushing your limits.
The Wizard of the Trees is John Carter of Venus, and god bless Joe R. Lansdale for giving him to us. Unlike Carter, our hero is plucked from his world by a slimy glowing thing, and chucked into a muddy hot pool. Things don't get much prettier from there, but Jack Davis, our intrepid US Buffalo Soldier, isn't afraid of a challenge. He even has a kick-ass princess encounter of his own!
Mike Resnick works from the same basic story structure as Tidhar, but The Godstone of Venus is a lot less Lovecraft and a lot more Indiana Jones. A merc and his partner are picked up by really strange clients in a run-down bar. The partner can't read the lady's mind, which is odd, because he can read anything's mind. They're on a quest for an artifact that can't exist, and things only get weirder from there.
Our last story is, in my opinion, the absolute best. Ian McDonald delivers to us Botanica Veneris: Thirteen Papercuts by Ida Countess Rathangan. It was absolutely and incontrovertably perfection. I loved the conceit, I loved the execution, the story was gripping, and the mystery was lovely. Utterly, utterly delightful.
Saturday, September 5, 2015
Fantasy: From a High Tower, Mercedes Lackey
From a High Tower (Elemental Masters)
Mercedes Lackey
ISBN: 9780756408985
Fantasy: mash-up of Rapunzel with a German wild-west tale.
Read June 2015
These last few books have struck me as odd for various reasons. This time around, I was perplexed by the jacket copy that gave away the entire story to the 3/4s mark. I was floored when I began reading and the story never picked up the pace - I was expecting the info in the jacket copy to be the set-up for the story, not the largest portion of the story itself! That just struck me as very strange.
Once I got over that, I did enjoy the tale. These are mostly light-hearted stories about good men and women who are masters (or adepts) at working with elemental spirits, and who stand against evil people who wish to use the elemental power (here presented as overwhelmingly neutral to human morality and affairs) for evil.
This particular story also involves the last heroine from Blood Red who has grown into her role as a legit ass-kicking guardian warrior, which was gratifying. There was also a sub-plot involving a tribe of Pawnee enduring racism and caricatured portrayals of themselves in an attempt to earn money to purchase titles to their ancestral land. I thought that was handled with skill and grace, but I am not native, so there may be issues I don't see.
Another fun little story, and a new set of interesting characters to add to the roster of interesting people in the overall series.
Mercedes Lackey
ISBN: 9780756408985
Fantasy: mash-up of Rapunzel with a German wild-west tale.
Read June 2015
These last few books have struck me as odd for various reasons. This time around, I was perplexed by the jacket copy that gave away the entire story to the 3/4s mark. I was floored when I began reading and the story never picked up the pace - I was expecting the info in the jacket copy to be the set-up for the story, not the largest portion of the story itself! That just struck me as very strange.
Once I got over that, I did enjoy the tale. These are mostly light-hearted stories about good men and women who are masters (or adepts) at working with elemental spirits, and who stand against evil people who wish to use the elemental power (here presented as overwhelmingly neutral to human morality and affairs) for evil.
This particular story also involves the last heroine from Blood Red who has grown into her role as a legit ass-kicking guardian warrior, which was gratifying. There was also a sub-plot involving a tribe of Pawnee enduring racism and caricatured portrayals of themselves in an attempt to earn money to purchase titles to their ancestral land. I thought that was handled with skill and grace, but I am not native, so there may be issues I don't see.
Another fun little story, and a new set of interesting characters to add to the roster of interesting people in the overall series.
Friday, September 4, 2015
Nonfiction: The Home Creamery, Kathy Farrell-Kingsley
The Home Creamery
Kathy Farrell-Kingsley
ISBN: 9781603420310
Nonfiction: cheese history, and recipes for soft cheeses, butter, cream-cheese, yogurts, and more.
Read July 2015
This was a prize for our Summer Reading Program, and it was a lovely fit. I have family that makes and sells cheese, and when I was young, my mother was big on colonial life and back to basics living, so we suffered through some overly enthusiastic and much less organized bouts of butter, yogurt, and cheese-making. I remember it being complicated, smelly, and generally resulting in failure, but the clear tone and reassuring directions in this handy guide make me want to give it a try once more.
The only thing I would have liked would be some pictures. There are a few very stylized illustrations, but an actual photo or a lifelike drawing would be a great help in determining if I'm doing things right.
Overall a lovely book, with clear descriptions of the tools needed, and directions for making all of the following: yogurt, kefir, butter, Piima butter, buttermilk, creme fraiche, quark, sour cream, cream cheese, cottage cheese (also farmers cheese and pot cheese),ricotta, goat cheese (feta), mozzarella, and marscapone.
There are also some really nice recipes in the back. Highlights for me were the Cheese Blintzes, the Wasabi Rice Crackers, the Marinated Feta, and the Marscapone-Stuffed Dates (although I despise dates and stuffed the cheese into strawberries instead..., Penne with Herbed Goat Cheese and Tomatoes, and the Chicken Curry with Yogurt. Yum.
Kathy Farrell-Kingsley
ISBN: 9781603420310
Nonfiction: cheese history, and recipes for soft cheeses, butter, cream-cheese, yogurts, and more.
Read July 2015
This was a prize for our Summer Reading Program, and it was a lovely fit. I have family that makes and sells cheese, and when I was young, my mother was big on colonial life and back to basics living, so we suffered through some overly enthusiastic and much less organized bouts of butter, yogurt, and cheese-making. I remember it being complicated, smelly, and generally resulting in failure, but the clear tone and reassuring directions in this handy guide make me want to give it a try once more.
The only thing I would have liked would be some pictures. There are a few very stylized illustrations, but an actual photo or a lifelike drawing would be a great help in determining if I'm doing things right.
Overall a lovely book, with clear descriptions of the tools needed, and directions for making all of the following: yogurt, kefir, butter, Piima butter, buttermilk, creme fraiche, quark, sour cream, cream cheese, cottage cheese (also farmers cheese and pot cheese),ricotta, goat cheese (feta), mozzarella, and marscapone.
There are also some really nice recipes in the back. Highlights for me were the Cheese Blintzes, the Wasabi Rice Crackers, the Marinated Feta, and the Marscapone-Stuffed Dates (although I despise dates and stuffed the cheese into strawberries instead..., Penne with Herbed Goat Cheese and Tomatoes, and the Chicken Curry with Yogurt. Yum.
Thursday, September 3, 2015
Nonfiction: The Backyard Beekeeper, Kim Flottum
The Backyard Beekeeper (3rd edition)
An Absolute Beginner's Guide to Keeping Bees in Your Yard and Garden
Kim Flottum, photographs mostly by Kim Flottum
ISBN: 9781592539192
Nonfiction: a really exhaustive and heavily illustrated (and photographed) guide.
Read July 2015
I enjoyed the slightly snarky, tell-it-like-it-is tone that Flottum takes with her readers. She's dispensing valuable and clear-headed wisdom and history about bees and beekeeping, and clearing up a lot of misconceptions as well.
The edition is important to note, because this particular version has been written after the devastation of Colony Collapse Disorder, and even after the studies concluded that there wasn't a single cause for the terrible losses. Her guide takes into consideration the negative impact of pesticides, and has lots of advice for strengthening the hive and for maximizing the health of the bees, and for naturally (or as minimally-toxic as possible) ridding them of pests that would stress or weaken them.
Lots of good info, but I would also say that the photography and illustrations are not to be overlooked here. I am a visual learner, and having this wealth of really beautiful and very well composed, clear, illustrative photograpy to study is extremely helpful.
An Absolute Beginner's Guide to Keeping Bees in Your Yard and Garden
Kim Flottum, photographs mostly by Kim Flottum
ISBN: 9781592539192
Nonfiction: a really exhaustive and heavily illustrated (and photographed) guide.
Read July 2015
I enjoyed the slightly snarky, tell-it-like-it-is tone that Flottum takes with her readers. She's dispensing valuable and clear-headed wisdom and history about bees and beekeeping, and clearing up a lot of misconceptions as well.
The edition is important to note, because this particular version has been written after the devastation of Colony Collapse Disorder, and even after the studies concluded that there wasn't a single cause for the terrible losses. Her guide takes into consideration the negative impact of pesticides, and has lots of advice for strengthening the hive and for maximizing the health of the bees, and for naturally (or as minimally-toxic as possible) ridding them of pests that would stress or weaken them.
Lots of good info, but I would also say that the photography and illustrations are not to be overlooked here. I am a visual learner, and having this wealth of really beautiful and very well composed, clear, illustrative photograpy to study is extremely helpful.
Wednesday, September 2, 2015
Nonfiction: Forensics, Val McDermid
Forensics: What Bugs, Burns, Prints, DNA, and more tell us about crime.
Val McDermid
ISBN: 9780802123916
Nonfiction: lots of case histories, each detailing the use (or development) of a forensic technique.
Read June 2015
This was an EXCELLENT book. I read it on vacation, and freaked out my co-vacationers, but it was a lovely read all about murders and killings and decapitations and mouldering bodies and bones and blood and decomposition and maggots and it was delightful all the way through.
Val McDermid
ISBN: 9780802123916
Nonfiction: lots of case histories, each detailing the use (or development) of a forensic technique.
Read June 2015
This was an EXCELLENT book. I read it on vacation, and freaked out my co-vacationers, but it was a lovely read all about murders and killings and decapitations and mouldering bodies and bones and blood and decomposition and maggots and it was delightful all the way through.
Tuesday, September 1, 2015
Tuesday Storytime: Counting with Ducks
And yes, there are enough duck books in the picture book world for there to be a three-book storytime specifically about ducks and counting.
Nine Ducks Nine (previously reviewed here)
Sarah Hayes
ISBN: 9780763638160
9 watercolor ducks hatch a plan to outwit a pursuing fox through an idyllic countryside.
This is essentially the same story as Do Like a Duck Does (Hindley and Bates, 2002 Candlewick hardcover ISBN: 0763616680), where a family of ducks outwit a fox and the fox ends up taking a swim. To be perfectly honest, I like the cadence and the illustrations of that story better than this one. But, this one has numbers and counting, and this one is also a longer read.
Quack and Count
Keith Baker (Big Fat Hen, 1994 HMH hardcover ISBN: 9780152928698)
ISBN: 0152928588
Colorful and textural collages (even the words!) follow permutations of 7 ducklings.
I've used Baker's Big Fat Hen in a counting storytime before, and he's a stunningly talented artist. This is less a counting book, and more of a math concepts book, but whatever. It totally counts. We start with 7 ducklings all together, and then Baker creates a clever series of rhymes for each sum of seven: starting with "Slipping, sliding, having fun / 7 ducklings, 6 plus 1." Then 5 + 2, 4 + 3, and so on. What's fun is to compare the different scenes with reversed sums: so we also have "7 ducklings, 1 plus 6 / In the water playing tricks" to compare with the first rhyme. The pages are all in full spreads, with the seven ducks divided up between the two pages to match the sum in question. Really pretty book, and really clever concept.
Five Little Ducks
from the nursery song, illustrated by Ivan Bates
ISBN: 0439746930
Colored pencils and watercolors. Bright expressive characters foregrounded against soft scenery.
Ivan Bates is a beautiful illustrator, and I love his work so much. I try not have repeats of an author or an illustrator within a storytime, which is the other reason I didn't choose Do Like a Duck Does for this trio. This is a simple illustration of the first verse of the rhyme, but there's a cute little story hidden within the illustrations about just why the ducklings aren't coming back each time. So adorable.
This ended up being on the very short end on things, but I actually try to choose shorter sets of books for the early fall. Families are coming in with their younger kids only (the older ones have headed off to preschool or kindie) and without the older kids to model good storytime behavior, it's harder for the little ones (and to be totally honest, the parents) to keep from squiggling around like mad. This is the sort of thing you figure out over time, watching the pattern repeat every fall, and you just learn to work around it - shorter stories, more obvious transitions, really expressive stories with very narrative illustrations.
Nine Ducks Nine (previously reviewed here)
Sarah Hayes
ISBN: 9780763638160
9 watercolor ducks hatch a plan to outwit a pursuing fox through an idyllic countryside.
This is essentially the same story as Do Like a Duck Does (Hindley and Bates, 2002 Candlewick hardcover ISBN: 0763616680), where a family of ducks outwit a fox and the fox ends up taking a swim. To be perfectly honest, I like the cadence and the illustrations of that story better than this one. But, this one has numbers and counting, and this one is also a longer read.
Quack and Count
Keith Baker (Big Fat Hen, 1994 HMH hardcover ISBN: 9780152928698)
ISBN: 0152928588
Colorful and textural collages (even the words!) follow permutations of 7 ducklings.
I've used Baker's Big Fat Hen in a counting storytime before, and he's a stunningly talented artist. This is less a counting book, and more of a math concepts book, but whatever. It totally counts. We start with 7 ducklings all together, and then Baker creates a clever series of rhymes for each sum of seven: starting with "Slipping, sliding, having fun / 7 ducklings, 6 plus 1." Then 5 + 2, 4 + 3, and so on. What's fun is to compare the different scenes with reversed sums: so we also have "7 ducklings, 1 plus 6 / In the water playing tricks" to compare with the first rhyme. The pages are all in full spreads, with the seven ducks divided up between the two pages to match the sum in question. Really pretty book, and really clever concept.
Five Little Ducks
from the nursery song, illustrated by Ivan Bates
ISBN: 0439746930
Colored pencils and watercolors. Bright expressive characters foregrounded against soft scenery.
Ivan Bates is a beautiful illustrator, and I love his work so much. I try not have repeats of an author or an illustrator within a storytime, which is the other reason I didn't choose Do Like a Duck Does for this trio. This is a simple illustration of the first verse of the rhyme, but there's a cute little story hidden within the illustrations about just why the ducklings aren't coming back each time. So adorable.
This ended up being on the very short end on things, but I actually try to choose shorter sets of books for the early fall. Families are coming in with their younger kids only (the older ones have headed off to preschool or kindie) and without the older kids to model good storytime behavior, it's harder for the little ones (and to be totally honest, the parents) to keep from squiggling around like mad. This is the sort of thing you figure out over time, watching the pattern repeat every fall, and you just learn to work around it - shorter stories, more obvious transitions, really expressive stories with very narrative illustrations.
Nonfiction: Surprise, Tania Luna & Leeann Renninger
Surprise
Tania Luna and Leeann Renninger
ISBN: 9780399169823
Nonfiction, psychological benefits of being surprised, and how to add surprise to your life.
Read August 2015
Short and simple, Tania and Leeann both were working on different approaches to surprising people (for their own good, of course) and when they learned they were working on the same general idea, they teamed up to work together to create a foundation (and a book) to encourage people to seek out surprise to keep their brains and emotional selves in good working order.
Tania Luna and Leeann Renninger
ISBN: 9780399169823
Nonfiction, psychological benefits of being surprised, and how to add surprise to your life.
Read August 2015
Short and simple, Tania and Leeann both were working on different approaches to surprising people (for their own good, of course) and when they learned they were working on the same general idea, they teamed up to work together to create a foundation (and a book) to encourage people to seek out surprise to keep their brains and emotional selves in good working order.
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