Chet Reads & Writes*

At Indigo Bridge we had an incredibly belated holiday staff party, so belated in fact that we just called it a staff party. Our managers decided that rather than have people volunteer which food stuffs they would like to bring, they would assign a particular segment of a meal to each of us. I was awarded with the responsibility to bring the meat dish. I stayed up until 3:00 A.M. the night before braising pork for what my inspired fusion dish of Banh Mi Carnitas. Those are a story for another kind of blog altogether though! At our dinner party everyone voted for their favorite dish, I came in second place. Part of my prize was my choice of cookbook for free, and it didn’t have to be one we had in stock. Naturally I selected Pig: King of the Southern Table by James Villas.

I love pork. I think the pig is one of the best animals for eating. There are so very many things that can be done with it, and now Villas has given us an entire book about it. I have poured through the book to learn as much as I can, and there are quite a few recipes I have plans to adventure into making this summer as the weather improves for outdoor cooking. If you love pork, ham, bacon, and any other food items that comes from the succulent swine then check out this book.

I can’t leave however, without voicing my opinion that Villas is kind of an ass. It doesn’t take away from the book, but it does make me not really care for his writing. He is of a particular belief on what the definition of particular words including barbecue and southerner should mean. I don’t mind his definitions, but the way he constantly asserts them into his writing becomes obnoxious rather quickly.

To close, buy this book, if for no other reason because it won a 2011 James Beard Foundation Award for American Cooking. If you’ve never heard of the James Beard Foundation, and you consider yourself a lover of food, then you need to go check them out right now.

Approximately one moon ago was my birthday. Upon that day I received some extra funds from various familial sources that I was told to use to procure any particular thing my heart desired. I managed to part with some of this funding over Easter weekend while visiting Gomez Art Supply. They are a lovely establishment in downtown Lincoln. Currently I get my pens there, because where else but an art supply store can I find a pen with a 2 mm. tip? As mentioned before they also have bookbinding supplies.
After a bit of prodding from my darling wife I went home with a set of needles, some linen thread and an awl. I did some thinking and decided those were the most basic items I would need to successfully hand sew books. I put them all in a brown paper bag, and placed them on a shelf. That’s where they sat for nearly a week before I even opened any of them.
In the mean time I contacted my favorite people over at A Novel Idea to see if they had any titles handy that would help me learn some bookbinding basics. Luck was in my life that day. Once the book made it to my home, it joined the supplies on a shelf, until the following Tuesday; Art Night started at our home.
Since the initial art night I have made three things. Two I gave to my mom on Mother’s Day. They were simple, 16 page, journals with pretty card stock covers. They were both held together using what is called the pamphlet stitch. The next week I set out to create a codex text block, which has 80 pages. Since then I’ve set the text block under some weights (read: heavy books), and am going to buy some cover supplies to finish off the project soon.

Currently I’m torn on using PVA as an adhesive or something that will allow me to disassemble the book if ever need. Although maybe I’ll stick with something simple and easily accessible for my first project. I’ll post some pictures of the finished project, and next time I sit down to construct something I’ll see if wife will take some…action shots(?).

I don’t know why I even use the word goal on this blog. I did finish Shadow of the Giant, but it was a little later in the week than I was hoping, and I stayed up until 1:00 A.M. to do so. If you’re a reader, then you completely understand the importance of staying up at all costs to finish the last fifty pages of a book. Now that I’ve read all of the published Shadow novels I’m going to be impatiently waiting for the announced, yet woefully unfinished, title Shadows in Flight. Card replied to a reader-submitted Q&A with the Washington Post(There is a small spoiler in Card’s statement. I wasn’t happy with myself when I came across it. So here’s your warning.) in November 2010 where he confirmed the existence of this later title, but said that he hasn’t solved the problem of the Descolada planet, and as such hasn’t finished the novel. Enough of my pining for a novel that isn’t even written yet.
When I last wrote about the Shadow saga I gave the run down of the overall series, with the promise of briefing you all on all four of the novels. I am going to unleash my wealth of knowledge, sans spoilers, to the best of my ability, although I am assuming you’ve at least read Ender’s Game.

Ender’s Shadow

The first in the series is often considered a companion novel to Ender’s Game, however it’s most assuredly more than that. Beginning in Rotterdam, The Netherlands we learn just how rough Bean’s life has been as an orphan. Scrounging for tidbits of food until he is taken into a family of children, led by a slightly older girl, known as Poke. Throughout Rotterdam there are many foes and bullies to the younger children, but Bean’s early on-set intellect allows for him to help create a plan to use a bigger bully to get better treatment for the younger children. That particular character, named Achilles and pronounced with a French tongue, will come to play an incredibly large role spread throughout the series.
Bean is eventually found by a nun, Sister Carlotta, who puts him through the standard battery of Battle School tests. Her perseverance is what eventually brings Bean into Battle School to join Ender’s cohort, but there’s more to be learned before then.
While at Battle School Bean figures out many things that help throughout his adventures. He learns how to hack into the computer system to read teacher and student files, as well as discovers that if he takes off his assigned clothing, no one can track him. Yes, that means there is a little naked Bean running around throughout the book.
Eventually Bean is put into Ender’s army where their genius meets and they both work well with each other, creating strategies that ultimately defeat army after army. When Ender leaves Battle School briefly Bean is given his own army to fight with, but Bean defies the IF rules by refusing to play the games anymore.
Once Ender and his Jeesh are rejoined we find ourselves fighting to the final battles of the Formic War.
From there, there is a power struggle on Earth between the Hegemony and the Warsaw Pact, once things are settled out the children are returned to their respective home countries, including Bean.

Three years ago I wrote about a short story I fell in love with. Five months later I published a brief review of the author’s self-published novel The Inside. That same month I held an email interview with Isaac Marion. Today I am here to tell you guys that he’s still got it. Today Atria Books released Warm Bodies, this is an expansion of Marion’s stellar tale I am a Zombie Filled with Love. This is a tale of unaccepted, unpreventable love and the impact of xenophobia on mankind.

From the moment I cut through the tape on that Simon & Schuster box back in February, to the chilly afternoon where I completed my time with R and Julie, I was in love with this story. Overall the book is so engrossing that it feels like a quick read, but there’s so much going on that readers really should take time to savor the characters that Marion has created. R is an intelligent, emotionally capable zombie who finds love in Julie. The daughter of a military man, and very nearly anything but military herself, Julie is loving and open minded. Instead of spending her days revolted by R she converses and bonds with him.

Warm Bodies is an incredibly well-versed waltz into the depths of the total human condition. A study in love, caring, courage and friendship. Marion uses the traditional zombie paradigm to ignite a new understanding behind the plague. The best summation of this tale’s virtues can be stated as: We are human. We broke it. We can fix it if we want it badly enough.

Favorite lines:

The Dead are adrift on a foggy sea of ennui.

Want some wine? It’s an ’86 Mouton Rothschild. I’d describe it as yummy, with notes of fucking delicious.

I think we crushed ourselves down over the centuries. Buried ourselves under greed and hate and whatever other sins we could find until out souls finally hit the rock bottom of the universe. And then they scraped a whole though it, into some… dark place.

Starlings zip and dive against the distant sky, pretty much unaffected by the end of our silly civilization.*

We will not let Earth become a tomb, a mass grave spinning through space. We will exhume ourselves. We will fight the curse and break it. We will cry and bleed and lust and love, and we will cure death. We will be the cure. Because we want it.

In the sunny fields of my imagination we are not a teenager and a walking corpse driving in a rainstorm. We are Frank and Ava cruising tree lined country lanes while a scratchy vinyl orchestra swoons out sound track.

*This one makes me think of There Will Come Soft Rains by Ray Bradbury.

Do not pass by this novel because, “It’s just another zombie book.” Unlike many of the other fluffy novels being cranked out by publishers across the country, Warm Bodies can and does stand on its own legs. I waited nearly two years for this book to release, and received an ARC from the lovely people at Simon & Schuster. Lucky for you it’s now available at your favorite local bookstore and library.

In early March Brian Jacques died. It was sudden, and I was deeply saddened. If you’re not aware of whom Mr. Jacques was, or any of his titles then I think you’re deeply missing out on some of the finest mid-grade literature ever written.

It’s been said that Jacques had been a brilliant writer from an early age with an immense imagination. His teachers in primary school even claimed the stories he turned in couldn’t possibly be from a child’s mind. Alas that was untrue.

I read my first Jacques book, Redwall in 7th grade, and never really looked back. There are several of his novels that I’ve never read. I can admit that trying to read all of the Redwall books in a single run could become a bit trying.

In honor of Jacques and his life as a beloved author I decided to reread Redwall and found that it is still as delightful as it ever was. The entirely epic story of Matthias struggling to find his place in the hard war Redwall Abbey has found itself in against Cluny the Scourge and his disgusting horde of rats and weasels.

Jacques’ works are riddled with some of the most vivid imagery I’ve ever consumed. I’ll be so bold as to claim he’s on the same plane as Cormac McCarthy, violence and all. Throughout all of the layers of imagery there are two areas that Jacques pens most extraordinarily well, food and battle. His descriptions of the feast of Redwall Abbey will urge your stomach to cry out for the oh so delectable foods from the British Isles that on any normal day we’d never recognize. In turn his ability to create a battle field so inlaid with gore and destruction is amazing. I definitely found myself thinking throughout this read through, “No wonder I loved this book so much!” My favorite scene will always be one of idolatry interrupted by an over-sized projectile, but that is as far as I’ll go. (I don’t intend to ruin the scene for you.)

If you looking for a tale of adventure and mayhem, yet absolute optimism, then you simply must go out and pick-up Redwall from your local library (it is National Library Week after all!) or independent bookstore today.

Remember way back in 2010 when I wrote about the Enderverse? I said something then about finishing Ender in Exile and writing about it, or something to that effect. Since then I’ve read many, many books, a few of them have been written about here, most of them not so much. I’ve finally come to terms with the fact that I’m terrible when it comes to sitting down and writing. I always find myself doing something else, that may or may not be more interesting than the results of putting ink to paper, or finger to keyboard. Though if you know me, and have followed my blogging escapades throughout the years, at least as best as my strange posting schedule will allow, you know all of this already. Today though, I am going to write a bit more about the wonderful world created by Orson Scott Card.

Lately I’ve been reading my way through the Shadow sub-series (Ender’s Shadow, Shadow of the Hegemon, Shadow Puppets, and Shadow of the Giant) which still takes place in the Enderverse, but it’s the history of everything that happens Earth-side involving Bean, Petra, Peter, and the rest of Ender’s Jeesh after the Formic Wars. Each installation has been awesome to immerse myself in. The Shadow books are much more involved in political and military strategy rather than the incredibly deep philosophical discussions that can be derived from the rest of Ender’s life as The Speaker for the Dead. I’m almost finished with Shadow of the Giant. My goal is to finish it early this week, and follow this post up with a total rundown of the Shadow books.

For many weeks now I’ve been tinkering with the idea of book making. I came across Making Handmade Books: 100+ Bindings, Structures & Forms and since then have been feeling even more inspired. Then I found a ton of supplies at our local art supply store. I haven’t procured said supplies yet, but I have moved on to the project planning process.

I’m going to start by making simple journals with approximately 100 pages. They will be sized somewhere in the 4″ x 6″ or 5″ x 7″ range, pocket sized. Y’know? For now they will be unlined, but that makes them multifaceted journals. A person could use them for anything really. I even believe I know how I will structure and bind said journals. The question that does not have an answer as of now is, “What will the covers be made of?”

I’m not a leather worker in anyway, but I have been known to occasionally make pretty pictures using a computer. There is an awesome printing press and paper making studio here in Lincoln and I have a strong feeling that I will find my cover making materials there. I’m going to go look at supplies today. Maybe I’ll have samples soon, and hopefully I’m happy with them.

After years of hearing about how fantastic his works are I finally sat down and read a novel by Cormac McCarthy. I had been told that Blood Meridian was a good place to start, but instead decided I would read either No Country For Old Men or The Road. I eventually chose The Road for a few simple reasons: I hadn’t seen the movie and I enjoy post-apocalyptic literature. Shortly after beginning The Road I decided it was a mistake to have not read anything by McCarthy before now.

The Road is single-handedly the most beautifully written description of Mother Earth at her most bleak and forlorn that I have ever read. The scenery is ash gray and void of life, save a few humans here or there. If you’re not willing to feel a little sad and insignificant for the sake of fantastic prose, then don’t read this book. You would probably just be miserable.

The surface plot concerns a man and his son surviving, hardly, as they traverse the road to somewhere better than the day before. There are struggles and obstacles at almost every turn. The “good guys” are few and far between. Most of the humans they come across are broken and dying or have resorted to cannibalism for survival. There appear to be no other species left alive.

The story cycles through days of sleep deprivation and hunger, days of good fortune and food, days of danger, illness and death in such a beautiful way that one nearly forgets how horrid this place must be. There are no chapters, instead the book is a constant stream of stanzas. Each paragraph flowing easily, almost more poetry like than anything. It felt a little off-putting at first, but I eventually fell in love with McCarthy’s style for The Road. I’m hoping his other works are just as well laid out.

I think for once I’ll include some quotes from the book to help convey some of the greater phrasings he was able to parse together for us.

He lay listening to the water drip in the woods. Bedrock, this. The cold and the silence. The ashes of the late world carried on the bleak and temporal winds to and fro in the void. Carried forth and scattered and carried forth again. Everything uncoupled from its shoring. Unsupported in the ashen air. Sustained by a breath, trembling and brief. If only my heart were stone.

Dark of the invisible moon. The nights now only slightly less black. By day the banished sun circles the earth like a grieving mother with a lamp.

And perhaps beyond those shrouded swells another man did walk with another child on the dead gray sands. Slept but a sea apart on another beach among the bitter ashes of the world or stood in their rags lost to the same indifferent sun.

Read this book. You won’t regret it.

Stumbled onto this tonight. Decided to share.

I’ve been reading a lot of non-fiction lately. Most recently I finished Listen to the Echoes: The Ray Bradbury Interviews by Sam Weller, it was like sitting down and having a conversation with Bradbury himself each time I opened the book. I took away a few things from the interviews but one of the best lessons I want to hold on to is not over intellectualizing when it comes to writing.

You see, I have a real problem when it comes to writing, whether I’m blogging, reviewing or creating fiction. I always start with an idea, but instead of just letting it flow out of me I start thinking about it. That’s when it all goes down hill. Bradbury talked about being an emotional writer and letting his characters tell him what they wanted to say or do and what they were saying. I would like to do that. I want to actually allow my ideas to flow from my being and not become pent up relics somewhere in my brain. I have a few stories that I’ve started and haven’t finished, or finished but would like to clean up. I am going to do that this year. Writing more, and allowing myself to be open and free in my writing is my newest goal. I will not say I’m going to write more blogs, or even that I’ll share with whoever reads this more. I will say that I’m just going to do it. If you get to see some of it then yay, if not then feel free to check in on whether or not I’m doing what I said I’d do.

Wife introduced me to 750 Words, and it’s wonderful. You should give it a try. It really gets the words flowing from me like nothing else has in a long, long time.