I want to believe

Lately Mulder’s catchphrase has kept echoing through my head as I pick up yet another piece of genre fiction that has garnered rave reviews and which ultimately disappointed me. I had a recent run of reading several highly praised books that I really did not enjoy. I want to believe that all those readers were correct and the book that has so disappointed me really did deserve all the praise heaped upon it. Here’s the thing though, I don’t think they really do deserve the praise and while the mood I am in will affect how I relate to the story I don’t think that it is just me in crankypants mode either.

Genre fiction has always necessitated a certain suspension of beliefs in order to be enjoyed. One cannot approach it the same way an engineering friend does by picking it apart using logic. Logic, at some point, needs to take a back seat to the story. We all know logically that little old lady knitters don’t stumble across dead bodies and solve the murder on a weekly basis while the cops can’t; that there really aren’t wizards casting spells to bring down the mighty dragon; and that the undead are not cannibalistically gobbling down the neighbors. Genre fiction readers are willing to buy into the story but the characters within the story still have to follow some conventions of normal human behavioral patterns. When they don’t follow the convention it makes it so much harder to maintain that suspension of belief. To give an example I recently read a mystery/thriller novel in which our heroine has barely ventured out of her apartment for many, many years. She has panic attacks, a fear of crowds, etc. The author makes a real point of how psychologically damaged our heroine is. Then the author does something that makes no sense. She has our heroine hop into a plane and fly across country. Our heroine isn’t overly disturbed by this even though she should be –the last time she flew was pre 9/11 and getting through security alone gives the average traveler kittens and airplanes are confined tin cans of crushed together humanity but the heroine brushes it off with a “I was a little distressed but I’m proud I was able to do it” type of moment. Puleeze – this girl should have been a shivering ball of neuroses by the time she touched down. The book goes downhill from there and while I was willing to buy into the story initially I just couldn’t. Genre fiction is plot driven and while character isn’t king it should still count. However, it seems over the past few years more and more readers are willing to suspend greater amount of common sense to get a thrill. Sadly I cannot throw common sense out of the window but I bet the next time I see a heavily hyped novel I’ll still probably read it because I still have faith that the next truly great genre novel is out there – but I’ll be borrowing from the library instead of throwing money down the drain of “you’ve gotta be kidding me” storyline that seems to pass for good genre lit these days.

my one year ankleversary - a reflection

My ankleversary was August 7th.Today I had my final visit with my orthopedic surgeon ,sans cute resident goslings alas. As far as he is concerned everything is great and for the most part it is. It’s been one year since my tumble down the stairs and I’ve managed not to re break it in spite of the fact that I’ve a. managed to do the traditional trip over nothing on the sidewalk more than once and b. survived being shoved behind by a t-shirt toting tourist and on stairs no less. I “celebrated” the anniversary by going to yoga class.

So now it’s been a year lets revisit what I and my friends refer to as the unfortunate incident. I never thought I’d be the proud owner of not one but two walkers; a quad cane; crutches and a bath seat. Due to superstition I’ve decided to keep them. I figure as long as I have them I won’t break anything again but as soon as I get rid of them – well then, doncha know I’ll need them again. Besides the walkers have come in handy – I’ve lent them out twice.

I think of the recovery process in stages – phase one was the initial three weeks post break/surgery and probably the phase I was the most pathetic. Before the incident I was an okay exerciser, I made sure I got in at least 10,000 steps per day; rode my bike to/from work; went to the gym to weight train at least twice a week and had been taking a yoga class for six months. Post incident initially I was totally helpless, if my husband forgot to put a cereal bowl and food on the counter at approximately waist height then I was doomed. I literally could not even stand up long enough to grab a bowl from the overhead cabinets.

Then I got the hard cast off (phase 2) and got on the soft walking cast it was a tiny slice of heaven. I could actually move so much freely through the house. Unfortunately I could also go back to work and I did so with the help of my trusty scooter. Getting the scooter off and on the back of my car was pretty darn scary at times as we had actual slick pavement even here in California. Thanks to a very good friend helping me though I made it through that phase.

Eventually I got the walking boot off (phase 3) and probably entered my greatest depressive phase because I walked with a limp, a really bad limp which did not seem to get better and which also seemed to alarm my physical therapist. Trust me when your PT looks worried this is not reassuring. This is also when I had a minor setback in terms of getting my workers comp to pay for and authorize more than six PT visits. Eventually they did okay a total of 12. When I finished PT my gait still wasn’t great and my therapist thought I needed more – sadly that was not to be due to insurance restrictions. However, I had started going back to yoga as soon as Hermann the boot was off and after several months of downward do and triangle pose (neither one of which are my favorites) I feel like I’ve got most of the motion back in my ankle and I don’t limp like Quasimodo anymore.

I’m now in phase 4, the rest of my life post incident phase, and while I’ve yet to get my gym going, weight training Der Kommandant mojo back I have started biking regularly again and even braved a “deathmarch” aka flow yoga class a few times. I did discover last week though that running ever again is probably not going to be an option. After an hour of walking on the treadmill I decided to do a 5 minute test run. Bad idea – for days afterward the plate side of my leg felt tender to the touch and I had to go back to wearing my fashion plate black compression socks – yowza! I do have the occasional swelling in my ankle still and we won’t even discuss the plantar fasciitis and Achilles tendonitis in both feet which may or may not be a result of bad gait during the initial boot off phase. All I can say for those of you in the earlier stage of your ankle recovery, it does get better, but it can be a bumpy ride so grit your teeth and hang on. Yep I know that advice is really annoying when you aren’t there yet but trust me you too will eventually be singing I will survive at the top of your lungs.

I also have to say it wasn’t all bad, I did learn how to stream shows on my computer and spend a lot of time with my elderly, very faithful cat friend who stayed with me day after day. I also have to acknowledge and thanks “the saint” who carted me around town wheel chair and all; sat through several crying jags and who was just generally extremely patient. Thanks as well to all those friends who called, e-mailed and cajoled and allowed themselves to be seen in public with a lady with a walker and really ugly pants.

Creative Frustration

I seem to have hit a wall creatively. I don’t feel like doing any of my various crafts lately. I finally forced myself to resume working on a machine pieced quilt I had started before I broke my ankle. The quilt isn’t anything special, just a way to use up some pinks form an earlier project and is intended for the cats to loll about on. Yet I am having the worst time working on it. It is boring. There is no real contrast and the pinks are greyed pink so there is not sparkle or brightness to the quilt either. I know I shouldn’t care as the cats certainly won’t and the project is supposed to be a stash buster. However, it is very difficult to work on something that doesn’t sing to me. Of course, I then started to think – “what if I threw in some black. I don’t have black, maybe I should get some.” Err, this type of thinking is not going to help the stash busting.

It didn’t help matters in that I’ve seen two fabulous gardens that just look gorgeous and have color everywhere. One of these is Keelya Meadow’s garden. She always knows how to put colors together and she had a beautiful display of pink, purple and orange tulips that took my breath away. Then, this past weekend, we went and saw the “bulb guys” garden. While he doesn’t have the artistic styling’s of Ms. Meadows his yard too was fabulous. He had tons of tulips, daffodils, anemones etc laid out and it was wonderful to look at. Now, of course, I cannot wait to plant my own bulbs but in the meanwhile maybe I should take some ideas form these gardens and try them in a new quilt – right after pink the ugly is done .

Kitty play and the broken ankle

So this past week I have been trying to play with our latest acquired cat, Molly aka the tank. She just loves to chase us as we run down the halls trailing a feather toy behind. I engaged in play this way with her twice but it turns out the broken ankle doesn’t care for this type of rough housing. Two of my three breaks are totally healed - one small break remains in the tibia and I suspect this tiny, tiny break is what is still making the ankle so cranky. There was much throbbing and shooting pain after I “ran” up and down the halls. Oh, and Molly has a bit of a temper and somehow she knows to target the bad ankle for her nips and swats, bad kitty, bad. I really need to go faster so heal ankle heal.

However there is much to celebrate - I am beyond thrilled that I walk fairly normally now and have been able to walk about 2.5 miles without feeling ankle fatigue. This is a definite step up from the beginning of Feb. when the ankle still got tired after ~ .5 miles or so. I now go up stairs without thinking about it at all, can go up and down the library step stool effortlessly and am thinking about resuming bike riding. I did a half mile trial run on the bike the other day and I think it is time to resume the bike commute. I am absolutely thrilled though that I no longer wear a compression sock every day (what a fashion statement that was) and finally had the bottom of my bed unelevated.

There still needs some improvement – I still cannot go downstairs without going really slowly and awkwardly, I still cannot run, my calf muscle is still a joke, getting up from the tub still requires the "splayed giraffe" move and I still cannot do child's pose or thunderbolt in yoga.

I do have a “it's a fact of life” reality with the ankle and I suspect some things are going to be status quo for awhile,for example, talk about stiff, in the mornings I give Frankenstein's monster a run for his money. I’m also pretty sure I am never going to be a yoga queen or even finish a five K race as a runner (and yes I did at one point run 5 ks) but – you never know

distracting spring

I almost hesitate to say this as various parts of the country are still in the firm grasp of winter but…. Spring has definitely arrived in my area of the country. Tulips, jonquils, daffodils, freesia are all in bloom and some are even fading. My sweet peas, borage and cerenthe are all showing signs of vigorous growth and I may start to have blooms from them soon.

The imminent arrival of spring has forced me to be out in the garden weeding, prepping the soil etc., for my annual late March early planting of the annuals. Since I’ve been so busy outside I have had even less time than usual for either reading or posting about what I’ve read.

However, since I have a few free minutes I would like to say that February was a good month for fantasy. I cannot recommend highly enough The Rook and The Girl who circumnavigated fairyland in a ship of her own making.

The Rook by Daniel O’Malley opens with the protagonist Myfanwy Thomas standing over several dead bodies with no memory of who she is. She quickly discovers that she has lost her memory and that Myfanwy (past) has provided documentation for Myfawny present to survive. It soon transpires that she is a high ranking albeit administrative official in a secret organization. She soon comes into contact with a variety of unique people and life forms as well as plots galore. Myfanwy(present) is such an interesting cool character that the book was just fun to read. It alos doesn’t hurt that there are nice subtle touches of humor as the book progresses as well

I reviewed the Girl who circumnavigated fairyland in a ship of her own making by Catherynee M Valente on goodreads so won’t say too much here other than it is a smart, lushly imagined tale that still has some real heart to it. I am so looking forward to reading the sequel. Here is hoping that the sun and blooms don’t keep me entirely form a good book, but I suspect March’s have read bookshelf is going to be a touch slim. May those of you still in the clutches of old man winter soon feel the touch of the goddess herself.

January's best read

As promised I am trying to make this blog more about books and quilting and less about ankles. Since I am participating in Book Chick City’s 100 books in a year challenge I thought I’d post a review of the book I found most interesting in January. I was somewhat chuffed to see that I had finished nine books in January. This is a large number of books for me to have read these days. Of the nine books I finished I was most impressed with Ashfall. Ashfall is a young adult novel which posits the question of what one young man would do to find his family after the volcano in Yosemite explodes and wrecks havoc with the environment. When we first meet Alex he is pretty much a typical teen guy. He is far more interested in staying home alone and playing video games than going on a road trip with the rest of his family. The initial action happens pretty fast. Almost as soon as Alex’s family is out the door Yellowstone’s volcano explodes and Alex is trapped in a burning house. He manages to escape to find shelter with the neighbors. Events force him from that temporary shelter and Alex head out on the road to try and find his family. Along the way he meets a young woman Darla and her mother.

What most impressed me about the book was the realism shown in trying to survive after the volcano explodes. Alex is not some mythic character able to fight off bad guys. He is a fifteen year old boy who happens to know some martial arts but this doesn’t always help him when confronted with a larger, stronger opponent with a weapon. The author is not out to romanticize life after volcano yet he never uses the gritty reality of living post eruption for shock effect. There are some very uncomfortable moments in the book especially in the depiction of the so called refugee camp run by FEMA. Imagine those poor souls trapped in the superdome during Katrina magnified by a hundred and you get the idea that the refugee camp was not a place you wanted to be. The author also made me think about my own survival and whether I would be able to do some of the things in the book the characters do. As an example, think about your pets – there is no food, silicosis is a very real possibility for all living creatures – so do you try and save your pet or do you do the merciful thing?

The action comes in fits and starts throughout the book but I think this was a good decision on the part of the author. It allowed us to get a deeper feel for the characters of both Alex and Darla. We are allowed to see both strength and weaknesses, physical and mental in Alex and Darla. Much of their physical fight is tied up with their emotional dilemma. Alex is persistent that he will find his family and Darla has to come to terms with the death of her mother. For awhile, Darla, who had been caring for her farm long before the ashfall, really loses it. As an aside here – thank you, thank you, for depicting a girl clever and inventive enough to create machinery out of spare parts, do mind numbingly hard farm labor and still realistically come across as a girl. To watch them both struggle made me feel all the more for them.

The author did not make the entire novel bleak. Throughout the book we get lovely small vignettes of people still helping one another. Even though the cost of survival is huge some people still tried to maintain some kindness and loyalty in the new world.

Overall Ashfall is a very fine example of a post apocalyptic novel in either the YA or adult area. If post apocalyptic literature is your bag definitely try this one out.

100 books in a year

In an attempt to move this blog back to something besides broken ankle news I’ve decided to participate in Book Chick City’s 100 books in a year challenge. It turns out I did fairly well last year in that I read more books than I thought I had – 82 total, yay me. So theoretically I might be able to make 100 this year.

For anyone interested in participating you can go to their website

http://www.bookchickcity.com/2012/12/details-sign-up-bccs-100-books-in-a-year-reading-challenge-2013.html