All entries for the steampunk haiku contest are up now. Check them out and vote for your favourite haiku!
Lately it seems I pick up quite a lot of books that turn out to be a DNF. I tried so hard to read (and like) “The mysteries of Udolpho” which is a book I have been wanting to read for a long time, actually ever since reading “Northanger Abbey”. The Gothic Reading Challenge was the perfect opportunity to finally tackle it.
According to Goodreads I started reading that book on June 26. You want to know how far I got? To page 48!
I was willing, I compared covers, I told you the book beginning, Udolpho turned up on my monthly reading lists – to no avail. That book is so long winded, it defies description. Admittedly, at 880 pages I didn’t expect it to go medias in res, but the descriptions of scenery bored the hell out of me, and I didn’t want to read through 200 pages of them before the gothic “horror” would start. If it ever started I don’t know.
I think it’s time to say good bye to it and just face the fact that the mysteries of Udolpho will remain a mystery to me.
It is October and the Steampunk challenges is coming to a close. Would you like to take on another Steampunk related creative challenge?
Enter the Steampunk haiku contest! The winner will receive a gorgeous lapel pin created by Kristi from Northwyke Creations, a print copy of “The art of Steampunk” by Art Donovan from Fox Chapel Publishing and a Steampunk book of his/her choice.
For all the info about the contest please go to the Steampunk haiku contest page.
Blurb:
Well, it is a biography of Joseph Goebbels, what else can you say?
In a nutshell:
I liked it: x Yes No
For people who are: interested in history, the Third Reich, National Socialism, WWII
My thoughts:
To my disgrace I have to confess that I knew next to nothing about Joseph Goebbels, except for that he was in charge of the Nazi propaganda. I don’t remember how I even came across this book but when I decided to read about WWII for the One, Two, Theme challenge I added it to my list.
I got a German edition from 1950 (the book was published first in 1949), it is also available in various English editions. Curt Riess is a German-born journalist who emigrated 1933 to the US and worked as a war correspondent for the US Army. He published this biography in 1948 after researching documents he found in post-war Germany and interviewing relatives, friends and employees of Goebbels.
I can’t say I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book, but it did keep me reading on and on. I finished it within a week, but read other things in between, as the whole story is rather hard to digest. The war itself is only mentioned “in passing” as Goebbels himself had rather little to do with the operational, military side of things. Also the known atrocities are only talked about on a few occasions, like for example when he was asked whether it was true that concentration camps existed and he – “after checking back” – answered that there was no such thing.
I would think that all the material Riess used must be fairly unspoilt and fresh as it was collected directly from remains of the propaganda ministry or from people who knew Goebbels personally and rather well.
There are a lot of quotes from Goebbels writings that show a glimpse into what he was really thinking and how he managed to be such a convincing devil’s advocate even in cases where he personally did not believe in what he was preaching.
If you are only slightly interested in the Third Reich and in one of its key figures, this is a must read.
Product info and buy link :
| Title | Joseph Goebbels |
| Author | Curt Riess |
| Publisher | Ballantine Books |
| ISBN | ASIN: B0007EQ3Y6 |
| Buy link | Buy Joseph Goebbels: A biography |
Have you read this book? What did you think of it? I would love to hear other opinions.
Blurb:
“Extraordinary Devices and Ingenious Contraptions from the Leading Artists of the Steampunk Movement”
The Art of Steampunk seeks to celebrate the world of Steampunk: a world filled with beauty and innovation. A world in which steam power and technology intertwine to create machines that are not only functional and practical, but unique and striking.
Art Donovan is the owner of Donovan Design, a handmade lighting company with clients like Tiffany & Co, Bennetti Luxury Yachts, and Four Seasons Resorts. He also specializes in Steampunk-inspired lighting and artwork, and runs a blog devoted to the subculture at http://artdonovan.typepad.com/blog/ He’s also a regular contributor on The Steampunk Home blog, and was the curator of the Steampunk Exhibition at the Museum of the History of Science at The University of Oxford.
In a nutshell:
I liked it: x Yes No
For people who like: Steampunk, design, art,
My thoughts:
When I saw this book at Netgalley it caught my eye right away. I have been a regular visitor of The Steampunk Home for quite some time now and just love to look at all those gorgeous designs. Also, a book about Steampunk art, instead of fiction, is a good addition to my books for the Steampunk Challenge.
This book is a feast for the eyes.
First we learn about the Steampunk exhibition (of which Art Donovan was the curator) at the Museum of the History of Science at the University of Oxford, which is followed by an introduction to Steampunk. Already at this point some gorgeous designs are shown.
Then follows a “Steampunk 101” by G. D. Falksen where he answers some very basic questions every Steampunk newbie will ask, for example, “Where does the punk come in” or “What about goggles”.
The next 17 chapters are each dedicated to one specific artist. At the beginning each one is introduced and then his or her designs are displayed. Now this is where the eye candy starts. I just couldn’t stop looking at those gorgeous looking items. I was going to mention some of the most remarkable items but I realized I couldn’t pick any because they all are so wonderful to look at. Just to give you an idea, there is a laptop, jewellery, sculptures, a cover for cell phones, a clockwork heart, the list could go on and on.
I am considering myself to be a Steampunk newbie and this book is a very good introduction to Steampunk design. Even though you might not be particularly interested in Steampunk as a literary genre or life style, the designs are so beautiful that I can’t imagine anybody would not enjoy looking at them and subsequently want to know more about Steampunk in general.
Product info and buy link :
| Title | The Art of Steampunk |
| Author | Art Donovan |
| Publisher | Fox Chapel Publishing |
| ISBN | 978-1565235731 |
| Buy link | Buy The Art of Steampunk |
Have you read this book? What did you think of it? I would love to hear other opinions.
We are 8 months into the Steampunk challenge so I thought I’d post some key figures.
- Number of people who signed up: 87
- Reviews posted: 70
- Entries for the Steampunk Flash Fiction Writing Contest: 43
The challenge runs until October, if you would still participate, sign up for it in the comments on the Steampunk challenge page.
Blurb:
Victoria’s work with automatons has gained her renown and changed the face of London. But her concern that the clockworks are taking too many jobs away from humans, creating social unrest, is ignored. Given the ugly mood of the underclass, she fears more outbreaks of violence similar to the murder spree of the notorious Southwark Slasher.
Dash, unemployed thanks to the clockworks, has pledged fealty to The Brotherhood, a group determined to bring about the downfall of the automatons by any means necessary. His plan to kidnap Victoria goes awry when the unorthodox scientist pledges her assistance to their cause.
Despite their opposite social classes, a bond grows between them, and Victoria begins to feel emotions she never expected for the passionate Dash. But when the Slasher strikes close to home, Dash and Victoria realize that the boundaries of polite society are far from the only threat to their happiness…
My thoughts:
If you are a regular reader of my blog you might know that I like Bonnie Dee a lot. When I saw “Like Clockwork” available at Netgalley I requested it quickly for two reasons. Well, it’s by Bonnie Dee and it has a Steampunk theme.
As it turned out the story is a mixture of Steampunk, romance and mystery with a definite Jack the Ripper flavour (here called “Southwark Slasher”). After the first few pages I got the impression that the society in the story is somewhat like the ancient Romans, lazy, decadent and letting the automatons do all the work. However, the social problems that might come from a flooding of slaves (here: automatons) were solved by trying to get rid of all the poor that were driven out of work.
Victoria is another one of those down to earth heroines with very unconventional ways. Being kidnapped by Dash didn’t make her bat an eyelid; the necessary attraction to him did the rest to make this a very pleasant read. She was ready to acknowledge her feelings, something I always like in a woman, and act on them accordingly. Actually she was the driving force, which is quite unusual.
The automaton problem was not resolved in the story. I could complain about this, but the story was almost too short as it was, I could hardly expect to see such a complex social problem solved. At least the Slasher was brought to justice, well, sort of anyway. Call me slow, but I had no idea about who it was, even though in retrospect the prologue already should have given me a clue.
The Steampunk angle was quite nice, but apart from the ubiquitous dirigible in the sky and, of course, the automatons themselves, there was not much difference to a historical romance. It seems “clockwork” is THE Steampunk word. I don’t know how many Steampunk titles are out there with “clockwork” in the title, but somehow I get the feeling that that word is being seriously overused.
For lovers of short romance this is definitely worth a try.
You might also be interested in reading this:
What turned me on to robots by Bonnie Dee at Steamed!
| Title | Like Clockwork |
| Author | Bonnie Dee |
| Publisher | Carina Press |
| ISBN | 9781426890963 |
| Buy link | Buy Like Clockwork |
I thought it would be interesting to join the Word Lily’s 10 Things a Blogger shouldn’t do challenge.
If I assign 0.5 points to every list item I think I would score around 4. That doesn’t mean that my blog is perfect and I have millions of readers. No. For example, I am doing pretty good at the “You must not expect success without promoting” item, but this only means that I do not expect success. I suck at promoting and am actually not active enough in that area, but at least I’m not complaining about the lack of success, 
.
The one thing that definitely needs improving is the networking angle. I comment on almost every comment on MY blog but do not comment on many others. My Google reader is neglected, the number of blogs I really read regularly is very small and I do not comment nearly as much as others. I am not overly active on twitter and I only use Facebook sporadically for my real life. There, I know what the problem is, but lack of time and lack in inclination (sometimes) throws a spanner in my works.
Blurb:
"Essays in Love" will appeal to anyone who has ever been in a relationship or confused about love. The book charts the progress of a love affair from the first kiss to argument and reconciliation, from intimacy and tenderness to the onset of anxiety and heartbreak. The work’s genius lies in the way it minutely analyses emotions we’ve all felt before but have perhaps never understood so well: it includes a chapter on the anxieties of when and how to say ‘I love you’ and another on the challenges of disagreeing with someone else’s taste in shoes.While gripping the reader with the talent of a great novelist, de Botton brings a philosopher’s sensibility to his analyses of the emotions of love, resulting in a genre-breaking book that is at once touching and thought-provoking.
My thoughts:
This is the second book I read for my “relationships topic” for the One, Two, Theme Challenge. I have been ogling some of Alain de Botton’s books for quite a while and finally decided to start with this one, as it was his debut novel. It certainly won’t be my last.
I absolutely loved his style here. Basically it is the story of a romance from the very beginning to the end and a bit further on, so that the reader knows that the cycle (at least for the male narrator) started all over again. And a cycle it is. The story is divided into chapters, like for example, “Romantic Fatalism”, talking about that the chance meeting of the soon to be lovers is actually fate, “The Subtext of Seduction”, talking about how to seduce the beloved properly and the thoughts behind it, “Contractions”, here black clouds are showing up on the horizon, and “The Jesus Complex” where eventually the one who was left behind comes to the conclusion everything is the other person’s fault. Every chapter describes one or more specific, often mundane, situations and then reflects upon them with the help of numerous philosophers. Really everybody will recognize him- or herself in those scenes, or, if not in a specific situation, at least in the general thoughts that are lying behind it.
I read some reviews on amazon saying that the romance was incredibly predictable and therefore the book was highly unoriginal. I disagree. The book was original simply BECAUSE the romance was so ordinary and predictable. The whole point of the book is to show how every romance takes its course in a predetermined way and the reason our romance here is so predictable is that everyone has experienced exactly that before.
I was not too enthusiastic about both the male and the female character. Probably I sympathize more with Chloe, however, because the man turns out to be a total jerk right after their first night together. She cooks a wonderful breakfast for him and he insists on having a certain jam, a flavour she hasn’t got. He acts so stupidly that I would have kicked him out right away, but Chloe puts up with his crap – amazingly what love can do to you. The narrator himself, who can’t explain his own behaviour at the time, later comes up with a reason for it which is not completely unfeasible.
This is what I liked about the book. Every little detail and nuance is looked at from all sorts of perspectives and talked about. I found it very insightful. I also liked the language, I don’t think there was one sentence I found boring or too much.
A nice little touch – if somewhat trite – was the fact that the beginning and the end of the romance not only take place on a plane, but also that the exact same sentence describes the landing of the plane and the disembarking of the passengers. The circle is closed.
If you want to know more about ordinary relationships, how they work and about their dynamics, this is a must read.
Disclaimer: If you are a romantic and want to stay that way, better not touch this book. It takes a relationship apart and scrutinizes it minutely. The result is 100% realism with no room for romantic idealization.
Judith has mentioned she didn’t like this book too much. If you would like to read what she had to say you can go the the comments of this blog post where she copied her Shelfari review.
| Title | Essays in love |
| Author | Alain de Botton |
| Publisher | Picador |
| ISBN | 978-0330440783 |
| Buy link | Buy Essays in Love |
Blurb:
For ages women have come together over coffee, cocktails, or late-night phone chats to analyze the puzzling behavior of men. He’s afraid to get hurt again. Maybe he doesn’t want to ruin the friendship. Maybe he’s intimidated by me. He just got out of a relationship.
Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo are here to say that — despite good intentions — you’re wasting your time. Men are not complicated, although they’d like you to think they are. And there are no mixed messages.
The truth may be He’s just not that into you.
Unfortunately guys are too terrified to ever directly tell a woman, "You’re not the one." But their actions absolutely show how they feel.
He’s Just Not That Into You — based on a popular episode of Sex and the City — educates otherwise smart women on how to tell when a guy just doesn’t like them enough, so they can stop wasting time making excuses for a dead-end relationship.
Reexamining familiar scenarios and classic mindsets that keep us in unsatisfying relationships, Behrendt and Tuccillo’s wise and wry understanding of the sexes spares women hours of waiting by the phone, obsessing over the details with sympathetic girlfriends, and hoping his mixed messages really mean "I’m in love with you and want to be with you."
He’s Just Not That Into You is provocative, hilarious, and, above all, intoxicatingly liberating. It deserves a place on every woman’s night table. It knows you’re a beautiful, smart, funny woman who deserves better. The next time you feel the need to start "figuring him out," consider the glorious thought that maybe He’s just not that into you. And then set yourself loose to go find the one who is.
My thoughts:
This is the first book I read for my “relationships topic” for the One, Two, Theme Challenge. I don’t know exactly what I expected other than an entertaining read, but I was disappointed. Yes, it was an entertaining read, but other than that reading it is as enlightening as reading no book about relationships at all.
The book takes various situations, e.g. he doesn’t call when he said he would, he puts you down in front of others, he doesn’t want to marry you…., and evaluates them. The result of that evaluation is invariably the same, “he’s just not that into you”. Greg Behrendt’s world is black and white. If the man doesn’t do what he said he would and/or doesn’t do what you expect him to, dump the loser!
He doesn’t call on Monday, like he said, but on Tuesday? What a jerk! Dump him! He doesn’t want to marry you even though he knows how important it is for you to get married? You know now what to do.
Admittedly, there are some situations where the dumping is appropriate, but in others a readiness for compromise would help a bit. Also, your own feelings towards the jerk seem of no importance. You might be crazily in love with the guy who’s just not that into you. Doesn’t matter, get rid of him anyway.
The basic statement of the book “Better to be alone than to be with someone that makes you unhappy” might be sane and sound, but I am not sure that 100% of the women out there would agree with that. Liz Tuccillo, the co-writer of this book and the girl voice likes Greg’s wisdom and lives by it. Strangely enough, even though he assures the female reader continuously that she is a. hot stuff (how he knows this is beyond me, not all of us are hot stuff) and b. a better man is somewhere out there waiting for her, Liz is still single at 40 something and looking.
I’m ambivalent about this. Some advice is good, makes sense and should be followed, but that is advice that your mother would give you, too. The writing style is entertaining and every woman recognizes herself in the stories. However, a few more shades of grey would have done a great deal to make this book more helpful all in all.
| Title | He’s just not that into you |
| Author | Greg Behrendt & Liz Tuccillo |
| Publisher | Simon & Schuster |
| ISBN | 978-1416948674 |
| Buy link | Buy He’s Just Not That Into You |
