Predictably Irrational

Well the title’s an oxymoron if ever I heard one but the book is really interesting. Dan Ariely, a professor of Behavioral Economics at MIT taught me some interesting lessons. Firstly, nothing is ever FREE. Too much freedom of choice is a bad thing. Procrastinators have to be given rigid deadlines to succeed especially if they’re MIT students and cold hard cash keeps us honest.

The book is a study of the way our brains are wired up and how big business, especially advertising is taking advantage of that. Fans of Blink, Tipping Point, Freakonomics etc will lap this up. Up next after The Killer's Wife, the arc of Friend of the Devil by Peter Robinson (I hope!). Eat Pray Love and Labyrinth - Kate Mosse again. These last two I've been lent by friends (thanks Donna and Barbara)

Break out the Martinellis

Last night's meeting was a combination of celebration and commiseration. DeAnn got her first rejection slip. Eva already has one. So that's two of the four unpublished in the group. Donna and I don't have any but that might have something to do with not having submitted anything! We did a really good writing exercise last night and from it came a story I wasn't expecting. Now I just have to find a place to submit it to. As this is a writing entry rather than a book review I've also started reading The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron. I thought some of it sounded familiar and I read a Q and A with her years ago. Oh and I've finally sorted out my first person tense problem, I'm using the simple past, it seems to be working pretty well. With the remainder of my Xmas bonus I'm going to buy the Novels/Short Story version of Writer's Market 2008, then we can all use it.

Sepulchre, I will review properly when it comes out in April, will be trying to get Labyrinth her other book today. Over the weekend I read Rory Stewart's The Places in Between. In 2001 just after the fall of the Taliban, Rory walked across Afghanistan and this is the story of his journey and it is fascinating and now back outside to shovel more snow:-(

Three New Arcs

That'll teach me. Having been through the arcs in the back room I made a list thinking I might get at least one, maybe two. I got all three!!
Sepulchre by Kate Mosse (no not that one!) I'm 200 pages in and I only started it this afternoon.
The Killer's Wife by Bill Floyd (comes with a rather swish sleep mask) and Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely. (non-fiction - there had to be one non-fiction in the bunch) Will be reviewing these as they are released. Kate Mosse looks like an author I could read a lot of.
Also because we're meeting next week I've got a couple of assignments to knock out. I also bought Strunk's Elements of Style yesterday because I'm having real trouble with first person viewpoint - a lot harder than it looks.

Six Sacred Stones

In good there is always some evil, in evil there is always some good. Between Jupiter and Saturn there lurks an ancient destroyer. In this fantastic sequel to "Seven Deadly Wonders", Reilly pits Aussie Jack West Jr’s team against the now renegade Caldwell Group who have allied themselves with the Chinese and taken 'Wizard' Max Epper prisoner. But other quicksilver alliances exist and while some seek to prevent the Earth’s destruction there are others who will do anything to bring it about. Jack’s team face all manner of lethal challenges that some of them may not survive.

A real rollercoaster ride! Reilly gives you a few seconds to catch your breath and then throws you right back into the action. This book has it all, adventure, betrayal, some serious daddy issues, mystery, history, sacred relics, ancient tribes and a hero with more than a dash of Indiana Jones in his DNA.

Reilly leaves you "dangling" at the end with only two of the six stones placed!

Bit of a mixed bag

There's been a bit of a change in how we get the arcs. We can't just wander into the office and take them because some of the ones needed for review in the Inkslinger or Inklinks have been missing when needed. If I get a chance tonight I'm going to look through, make notes on which ones I want to read and then get permission from the arc-master - my good friend Kelly. So this week as the title suggests here are what I have and have yet to read. "Travels in the Scriptorium" by Paul Auster - one of our reps kindly brought these and 3 others in on Friday last week. Fascinating premise, an old man, in a room, no idea why he's there, is he there voluntarily, or being held prisoner. Who are the people who visit him and leave him feeling a weight of guilt. Did he send them to their deaths or is he a figment of someone's imagination. Bit too many descriptions of male bodily functions for my taste but whatever. "Memoirs of a Beautiful Boy" by Robert Leleux, not my thing, gave it a try but stopped after Chapter 5 no real reason, just stopped.
"The Killings at Badgers Drift" by Caroline Graham. Ah - a nice complex murder mystery. Have only just started it but it has promise. These aren't new if I like this - and so far I do - there are many more.
"Killing Rain" by Barry Eisler. Another in the John Rain series, the ethical assassin (!) I first came across in "Requiem for an Assassin." Someone special ordered this and then didn't want it. It looks good.

In Defense of Food

Small book - big message. This book is a direct result of The Omnivore's Dilemma because people kept coming up to Pollan and asking him OK so what do I eat? His answer - Eat Food, Not Too Much, Mostly Plants. What kind of advice is that you may ask. Pick up a copy of In Defense and you might be shocked by the fact that what you think is food is actually not. It's engineered or imitation. Pollan is a voice of commensense in the wilderness of nutritionism - that pesky practice of breaking food down into fats, sugars, carbs, vitamins etc. FYI did you know that the 'Western Diet' of refined flours, lots of sugars, way too much processed foods has produced more obese people with malnutrition (yeah I know) It's a fascinating book packed with insight, advice and thankfully no receipe section at the end. He gives you a set of rules and then it's up to you what you do with them. Three which stick out, don't buy anything your granny wouldn't recognize as food - twinkies are not food, people! Don't buy anything with more than 5 (unpronounceable) ingredients and stay away from the centre of the store, shop the periphery. Borrowed, then bought this book. During my shift yesterday I went to S'bucks and on my receipt (!!!) under all the promotion bumpf was the message that if I sipped a low fat latte, I would be getting umpty ump percent of my daily calcium intake and so and so of my protein. Coffee is not a nutrituious foodstuff! I rest MP's case.

Missed the Night Train waiting for more arcs.

New Year - New Books

Happy New Year!

I'll be honest I've haven't had time to read much - The Golden Compass is still on my Ipod but I did read Hawke. Ted Bell is the new Clive Cussler is the hook but as the only Cussler I've read is Raise the Titanic (youth hostel - it was raining they had a library - go figure) I can't attest to that. Hawke is good fun though, anyone who likes Patrick O'brien, Bernard Cornwell should be very happy with this.

Commander Alexander Hawke, businessman, freelancer for the UK/US governments hides a dark secret. At seven years old both his parents were brutally murdered but he never talks about it. An assignment to find a black market Russian sub - now in unfriendly hands - takes him to the Bahamas. Alex follows the trail to the submarine, having run ins with dodgy Russian arms dealers, Cuban mercenaries and in the process stirring up some long buried memories and possibly avenging his parents death. Suspend disbelief - this is fiction after all - and you will enjoy this book. I did.

Books for this week include the new Michael Pollan and - if I can get hold of a copy - Night Train to Lisbon.

I'm also now working on two manuscripts. The one I did for nanowrimo and GhostWriter. Our writing group are looking at setting up a subgroup just for novels!