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This review comes with two disclaimers and a warning. The warning is that I got to read a copy, but the book I'm writing about isn't due out until September first. The first disclaimer is that I know the author, ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) seanan_mcguire, and consider her a friend. And the second is that I can only try to produce a coherent review; I normally don't post about the books I read, or if I do, just short 'enjoyed X' or 'just finished X' or 'reading X' things; nothing useful. The exception is a rare book so thoroughly, horribly awful that I can take a perverse joy in shredding it. I can't fall back on that skill here, because Rosemary and Rue is not only not horrible, it's incredibly good. It's a modern urban fantasy, or perhaps urban myth; Toby Daye is a changeling, belonging neither entirely to the human world nor to the faerie world. It's a murder mystery, one that Toby would rather not have had to work on. And if you want a better description of it, the writeup on Seanan's website has the back cover writeup, which is ever so much more coherent than I am. I enjoyed this book a lot. Toby - for want of a better way to put it, Toby strikes me as very, very real. (Yes, I appreciate the irony of saying that about a changeling. It is nonetheless very true.) She's strong, she's capable, but she's not superman. And she's in a deep pile of you-know-what and trying to somehow get through it. Watching her struggle with everything she faces is fascinating. The other characters - I'll let them introduce themselves to you - are just as well drawn and believable. The world of faerie, and those who occupy it, is intricate and fascinating. And seeing it through Toby's rather disaffected eyes is both informative and entertaining. Some authors manage character or plot. In this case, we've got both; the plot is just as well-handled as the characters are, and it's amazing what I spot on a re-read once I know what was really going on. If you like urban fantasy, if you like the fae, if anything I've said intrigues you - check with your favorite bookstore (either in advance, or come September). This one's worth stalking. (Note: stalk the book. I am not suggesting the book merits stalking people. Please do not creep out your friendly neighborhood bookstore. :) Tags: books, links, positive
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The farmer's market was mostly a loss today - I wanted to get a pastry of some sort and the guy I like best wasn't there, neither was the runner-up. The gluten-free place was but they sell mostly smaller or single servings, and I don't need gluten-free in any case. Plus, the performers were loud and I wanted to keep Drew a bit away from the speakers; the gluten-free place was closer than I wanted to be, myself. Plenty of good produce but I don't think I'd do anything with it, given my schedule, so I left it there for someone who will. We spent most of the morning with a baby who had obviously either dropped extra points into his stats, or somewhere acquired a piece of gear that conferred about +4 sleep resistance. Morning nap? The one I take around 8:30 or so? What's that? No. Nooooooo sleepy. Fuss fuss fidget fuss play giggle rub eyes fuss fidget play NOOOOOOOOO sleepy. ...until we were driving back, and finally, finally, off he went to dreamland. About 11. Schedule? What's a schedule? (Not that we're on a firm schedule, but varying the nap a half hour either way isn't quite the same as two and a half hours!) He is presently back in his crib, VERY zonked. Tags: babble, parenting, shopping
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Okay, the icon only mostly works, since I was nowhere near the ocean. But we had an amazing storm yesterday evening, close to Midwest levels thunderstorm. During the evening commute, more or less; I'd have preferred it three hours later, but it's not like it was my call when it showed up. ;) It caused lots of fuss for us because we were in the office when it really hit, about - 4 I think for where we were? Took the power out briefly, everything went to UPS, then the power came back on. UPS worked flawlessly for me, but I did hear at least one person learning that they needed a new UPS.... Ick! One of my coworkers who starts/leaves early called a while later to report an hour-long trip to I5. Ick again! People started leaving a little early. I didn't: I was working on a change that needed to be in before this morning, and I wanted to get it done and leave the laptop at work. Besides, the weather was already bad, and the traffic was already a mess. I won't say it couldn't get worse, because of course it could, but at that point? Already doomed. I briefly planned to take backroads - I know a perfectly good route via Sherwood - and then chickened out as I listened to reports of trees and powerlines down all over the place, as the back route in question is absolutely gorgeous...and tree-lined...in a lot of places. I would much rather take a slow but sure route, and the radio was saying trees were down in too many places to mention, but they WERE saying how slow the various freeways were or weren't and if there were blockages on them. So the slow freeway slog was at least clear. Usually if my commute home takes forever, it's because 217 is a mess. That little 7- or 8-mile stretch of freeway can take 45 minutes when it feels like it. I was not expecting my drive to be very fun, drive-wise. I was figuring on enjoying the storm as I went, however. As it turned out, it took me over a half hour to get TO 217. That worried me a bit, because 26 east is the second-slowest part of a bad commute normally, and I was beginning to suspect it would take me more than 45 minutes to go the length of 217. On the other hand, I wasn't getting the reported hail, just a lot of rain, and the worst of the winds didn't seem to be where I was. Sadly, the lightning was also mostly MIA - I saw maybe 4-5 strikes the whole time, although one was a glorious multi-fork. Then I got to 217. The storm, you see, had passed north and started to lighten also. And 217 was clear, doing the speed limit or almost the speed limit, the whole length. Took me only about an hour to get home. I got to see some of the storm (but not lightning) from my office, and a bit of the storm (including lightning, but not the heart of the storm) on my drive home. I wish the whole thing would've been a few hours later so a) everyone was mostly home safe and b) I could've enjoyed it more. But it was a glorious storm. Of course, I wasn't one of the people near a downed tree or power line. (Or under it: a tree fell on a car on I84, but the woman inside was luckily not hurt.) Meanwhile, Scott was home with Drew and our friend E, chatting. They sat on the front bench (under shelter of the porch) for a while watching the storm. Drew apparently enjoyed it quite a bit; I'm glad. I wish I could've watched it more, and him watching it at all, though. Tags: positive, weather
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So, as I'm driving home Friday from my allergist appointment, I hear on the radio that there's a Sunday farmer's market in Villebois this year. Villebois village is an upscale conscious-community development on the far side of Wilsonville from where we are. It is, in other words, in town. We've never had a farmer's market in town before. This one is new this year and new this month, but I wanted to check it out. This weekend was also the Wilsonville Arts festival. That didn't have produce or plant vendors, but it did have food and craft vendors, so I expected the farmer's market to be a little stripped on that front (luckily NOT my main interest in a farmer's market). It was, for late May, a sweet little market that seemed well-established and had a good variety of produce, as well as ready-made food for sale and a few crafts booths. A very good balance. And the market rules require the produce to be grown locally, the foods made locally with real ingredients. Double win. I think it's gonna do well, given that it was fine the weekend of the arts festival. I hope it does well. It's nearby - it's so close that we went today even though I was on call, because a) I have an aircard to respond with and b) if there was any problem with the air card, home was less than five minutes away. WIN. I can't make as many snarky comments about Villebois now though. Rats. Their commercials invite snarky comments. What they're trying to do - create an old-fashioned community where people know their neighbors - is a lovely thing. The radio spots with the accent I assume is fake, but may be real, talking about ze Villebois Village...are really freaking annoying. They're hard to understand, the tone of voice is treacly and smug, and the accent is laid on with a trowel - thicker than the makeup on an 80's pop star. (Hence my assumption that it's fake, when in fact it COULD just be overdone, as I have no real applicable knowledge. But, seriously, laid on with a trowel.) But if the commercials are annoying, the farmer's market is lovely, and the neighborhood looks like they might be doing some of what they set out to do. (And using architectural styles that match the accent in their commercials, and look...overdone...to my eyes. However, I don't have to like them, as I'm not living in them.) And if they pull that off, it will turn into a place I want to hang out more. I'd have wanted to hang out more today if I hadn't been on call and we hadn't wanted to go to the arts festival; the folks at the farmer's market were nice to chat with. We have a farmer's market. And I have fresh strawberries. Win. Tags: food, gratitude, positive, shopping
Current Mood: pleased
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Mostly, I won't post about DW. People on DW don't need me to, and people here either are also there or don't want to be by now. (If I'm wrong, lemme know and I'll see if I can hook you up with an invite code.) However, the cross-poster has now been induced to sanity and can handle custom friends groups. I will therefore be cross-posting most of my stuff via DW just because I can. (If you are following me on both sites, I recommend you pick one; whichever you prefer to read at, though I'd appreciate not being unfriended on LJ if you post locked entries I currently get to see. If you have no preference, I suggest LJ for reasons noted below.) I will not be using the feature that directs all comments to DW, and my primary site remains LJ - I read there lots more than at DW. I also may sometimes post to LJ and not DW (my iPhone has an LJ app, no DW app and the LJ app can't be aimed at another server). While I'll probably import periodically to suck those entries into DW, that doesn't put them on your friends list. I'm not moving Drew's journal, or cloning it, at this time. I'll try to post something with more actual content sometime in the near future. Actual content requires a brain, however. I think the zombies got mine. I hope they did, SOMEONE ought to benefit from it and I'm surely not. :P Tags: journaling
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