A Good Week For Books

This is turning out to be an unusually good week for books. First there was The Tiger in the Well, which had me sitting in my parked car for more than 90 minutes. Tuesday night it was HPB keeping both the child and I up until midnight because we Had To Know How It Turned Out. Yesterday, Jacqueline Carey's new book, Godslayer arrived, and I'm already deeply drawn back into those characters.

Many months ago, I posted that her first book of this series, Banewreaker, was a strangely compelling blending of The Lord of the Rings and Paradise Lost. The LOTR aspects are so blatant the book shouldn't work at all. This volume even has on its cover an image of a "white wizard" riding bareback on a white horse -- someone who had apparently died in an underground battle trying to protect his "company" who had gathered to protect the small person carrying the only thing that can destroy the enemy. Can't get much more blatant than that. Unless you count Aracus Altorus, the Ranger-like King of the West, who was about to marry an Elven -- excuse me: Ellyon -- princess.

What makes the difference is the Opposition. Carey doesn't present a simple Good vs. Evil universe. The "bad guys" have their own story, their own honor, their own grievances -- and are unique, sympathetic, and intriguing characters in their own right. Instead of orcs as shock troops: stupid, brutal cannon-fodder, you have the Fjel, who are a race with their own strengths and weaknesses -- and, again, are allowed to have honor, friendship, loyalty, and grief. They are a race who can build and nurture as well as destroy.

Cerelinde, the Ellyon princess, is far more interesting than Arwen and has a better storyline. She is kidnapped on her wedding day in order to prevent the fulfillment of a prophecy, and she now has an unsettling close-up view of those she was raised to hate. And then there is Lilia, a mortal woman turned sorceress who was the custodian of a magic stone for centuries, and a friend of a dragon -- both now lost thanks to Aracus's efforts to rescue Cerelinde.

It shouldn't work. But it does.

Looney Toons and Film Directors

In good company with ad_lumen. . .

( I *do* have a lousy sense of direction )

6 Songs Meme

I have 1,310 tracks on my iPod, and dancingchaplain tagged me to choose six favorites?

Okay. . .

1. Defying Gravity - sung by Idina Minzel in Wicked, my theme song
2. A Piece of Sky - Barbara Streisand, from Yentl, which used to be my theme song
3. Tonight is What it Means to Be Young - from guilty-pleasure movie Streets of Fire
4. Indestructible - The Four Tops
5. Let the River Run - performed by Michael Ball
6. I am Woman - Helen Reddy

Others: Stars, as performed by Philip Quast on the Dream Cast recording of Les Miz; California Dreamin, Come Sail Away by Styx (the first song I played on a jukebox), Joan of Arc (Jennifer Warnes' recording of the Leonard Cohen song), This is Your Life (The Call), a dozen or so songs by the Carpenters which I have been singing along with since early childhood, Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head, Dela (by Johnny Clegg and Savuka), Corner of the Sky from Pippin. . . more music from Wicked, Yentl, Pippin, Les Miz, Godspell, Moulin Rouge. . . And a lot of instrumental music, especially soundtracks. . .

Tagging:

chipchat
bookchick
jaynefury
savagedaughter
_storyteller_
urbanbard

Good News from Work

Still continuing to get along with Miss V -- even in situations which in the past would have ended up with one or both of us fuming.

I had a chat this afternoon with one of the higher-ranked project managers (we have a dozen or so, all of whom seem desperately overworked) about the new PM training they are offering. Not only was he pleased I was interested, he encouraged me to do some job shadowing and then perhaps start taking on some project management tasks for my department -- assuming Jeannie approved.

I think she will.

If I can maintain my balance and my perspective, I could manage to continue to enjoy the flexibility of being Jeannie's assistant while still getting to do cool, challenging stuff far outside the normal admin role. While getting paid overtime.

Spiritual Stuff

There hasn't been a lot lately.

The Quest seems to have pushed my path into a very earth-focused phase. Right now, it's all about home and hearth, tending the mundane, honoring the physical.

I feel very non-intellectual right now, which is always dismaying when it lasts for more than a week or so. And not "spiritual" in my usual sense either.

But I do feel like I'm growing. So that's good.

But it's not in ways that make good journal entries.

Not right now anyway.

Later.

Meanwhile, there are dishes to wash, floors to vaccuum, and menus to plan.

And Godslayer to finish! ;-)