Internet Rumor Checkers

(from "All the News That's Fit to Post. Or Is It?: Quality Information and the Social Web," Searcher, June 2011, pp. 20-28. http://www.infotoday.com/searcher/jun11/Herther.shtml)

Barbara and David Mikkelson are on a mission. They created and now maintain Snopes, one of the premier sites tracking internet rumors today. Profiled in a New York Times article (“Debunkers of Fictions Sift the Net,” April 4, 2010 [http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/05/technology/05snopes.html]), the seeming futility of their mission was well-summarized in this quote by Barbara Mikkelson: “Well, we have to get out there and defend the truth. When you’re looking at truth versus gossip, truth doesn’t stand a chance.”
That assessment may be overly grim. Today there are many websites dedicated to tracking down the truth behind rumors, gossip, hoaxes, and urban legends. Here are a few of the best:

FactCheck.org

http://www.factcheck.org
A project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center, FactCheck.org allows you to track rumors or to “Ask FactCheck” to get the low-down on rumors.

PolitiFact.com

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter
Winner of a Pulitzer in 2009, the site covers the web with news, articles, and a “Truth-O-Meter” to check rumors as they arrive.

Fact Checker (The Washington Post)

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker
From Michael Dobbs, this site ended with the November 2008 elections. The site used a rating system of 0-5 Pinocchios to rank the truthfulness of statements made during the Obama/McCain campaign.

Snopes.com

http://www.snopes.com
Subtitled “rumor has it,” this site covers the waterfront from the arts to business to religion to politics.

Columbia Journalism Review (CJR)

http://www.cjr.org/index.php
With the subtitle of “strong press, strong democracy,” CJR provides coverage of events, rumors, and other aspects of discourse in our wired life.

MediaMatters

http://mediamatters.org/tags/issues
This site covers the media, major personalities, and programs, “documenting conservative misinformation throughout the media.” You can search or browse by subject area.

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Review: Daughter of Smoke and Bone

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I wish I could give this 3.5 stars. I liked it too much to give it three, but not quite enough for four. So I'm rounding up.

I loved the first 2/3 of this book. The story of Karou, her life with the chimaera, her meeting with Akiva, were all very good. I didn't need allllll of the information about Madrigal, though. I think that part could have been greatly trimmed down yet still give us the information we needed. I honestly don't know why I would read the next book, as there's nothing more I feel I need to know.

As my friend, Cyndy mentioned in her review, this isn't really a YA book. It feels like the main character was shoehorned into being a 17 year old, when there was NOTHING in her life that fit that of a typical 17 year old. She lived on her own, traveled around the world on errands for Brimstone, and was in the equivalent of a fine-arts college program. It was like the publisher or someone said, "Hey, YA is hot now! Let's make the heroine a teen!" and nothing else about her was changed.



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Review: The God Delusion

The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This book is Richard Dawkins' argument against the existence of any sort of divine being that runs the world. While getting deeper at times than I was comfortable following (quantum physics and philosophical arguments sometimes do that to me), I found it very interesting, and it addressed many of the questions raised by the religious when they're confronted with Atheists.

One of my biggest pet peeves is when religious people say that one can't have morals if one isn't religious. Dawkins does a splendid job of debunking that idea, and I recommend the book for that section alone.

I also loved his use of "American Taliban" to describe American fundamentalist religions. I know he didn't coin the term, but this was the first time I'd heard it, and I will be using it from now on.

I'm sure this book would horrify and anger many of the faithful. However, if you are open-minded and willing to listen, this book opens a whole world.



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Mini-review: God is Not Great

God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything by Christopher Hitchens

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Good book, hitting many of the same points as Dawkins in "The God Delusion," but in a less vitriolic manner.



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Review: Buffalo Gal

Buffalo Gal by Laura Pedersen

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


I couldn't finish this book. I tried, but, really, life's too short to waste it on books that don't keep you interested.

In the half of the book that I read, I got the feeling of nothing more than "man, this is meandering." She'd start a chapter talking about one thing, and two pages later be on a completely different topic, and you have no idea how or why she made the transition. As a friend emailed me while she was reading, "Wow, does she ever need an editor!"

Yes, it had some funny things about living in Buffalo, but it also fed into the stereotypes. Although maybe they weren't stereotypes in the 70s. Buffalo doesn't spend its entire winter buried in snow. Yes, winters are long, but we're not walking uphill in thigh-high snow to and from school every day. I understand the use of hyperbole. There was too much of it in this book. Also, much of the book (that I read) discussed things that were of national import (Vietnam War, energy crisis, etc.) and not particular to Buffalo. I didn't feel that needed to be in the book. There are others that cover those topics much better.

So, read this book if you want to have a giggle over some Buffalo-isms, but not if you enjoy a cogent narrative.





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Review: Divergent

Divergent by Veronica Roth

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I really, really enjoyed this book. At first I found the narrator's voice a little distracting, but I soon got past it, as she seemed to so clearly inhabit Beatrice/Tris, and I got so caught up in the story that it really didn't matter who was reading it.

I appreciated the strong heroine, who understood her limitations yet tried to work around them. And, thankfully, there was no love triangle. I was left with questions which may be answered in the subsequent books, such as what happened to create the Factions, and what is going on in the rest of the world.

Although this is the first book in a series (I think trilogy), I don't feel as resentful toward it as I have toward other first books lately. It could stand on its own if you don't feel like exploring the world any further.



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Review: The Shop on Blossom Street

The Shop on Blossom Street by Debbie Macomber
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This is the story of four women: Lydia, a cancer survivor who opens a yarn store, and her first three customers/students, Jacqueline, a society matron, Carol, a business woman trying to get pregnant, and wild-child Alix. The book takes us through their lives and how being in a knitting group together changes them.

This was, by far, the most predictable, formulaic book I've ever read. As soon as every woman's story, and those of supporting characters, was laid out, I knew exactly what was going to happen with each main character, and, sadly, I was right.

It's a fine story if you're looking for a comfortable, female-centric feel-good novel. But don't come to this looking for any depth. It's very simply a light, happily-ever-after.

As a yarn-crafter, and member of my own crafting group, I wanted to love this book. I'm a little sad that I didn't.

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Review: The Space Between

The Space Between by Alexandra Sokoloff
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I got this book free from BookRooster.com.

This is the story of teenager Anna Sullivan, who begins have dreams of a something horrible happening at her school. When she begins interacting with school mates in her dreams, and discovers that they're having the same dreams, she tries to figure out if they can change the events of the dreams and, if they do, how/whether that will affect reality.

I enjoyed this book. The premise was quite interesting -- quantum physics, parallel universes -- and I think it was written at a level that those tricky ideas would be understandable to a teen audience. It was a bit repetitive, but that may have been the authors desire to make the principles clear.

I'm not entirely certain I understood the ending, but that's ok. I don't need to have everything spelled out for me. I like things being left open to interpretation.

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Stray

Stray by Andrea K. Höst

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Alert: Spoilers Below!!!

I need to say up front that I received this book for free from BookRooster.com.

Cassandra is an Australian girl who walks through a sort of wormhole on her way home from school, and ends up on a completely different planet. She manages to make her way through the forests she initially stepped into, and winds up in what appears to be an abandoned city, encountering various animals and plants that resemble some on Earth along the way. She is finally "rescued" by a people from a nearby planet, who tell her she's a "stray" -- a person who wanders from their own planet/space-time and into another. When it is discovered that Cass has the ability to enhance the psychic powers of the people on this new planet, she takes on a special role with them.

I very much enjoyed this book. It was well-written and well-edited, which have been problems with recent ebooks I've read. The story is told completely from Cass' point of view, via her journal. She is very resourceful, managing to stay alive on an unknown planet completely by herself -- but still falls into funks on occasion, especially when she's feeling particularly like a lab rat.

As another reviewer on Goodreads pointed out, this is quite unlike other popular YA fiction in that there's no love triangle. In fact, there's no romance at all, other than Cass' crush on one of the people she's working with. While part of me was rooting for her to break through Ruuel's tough exterior, for the most part I was happy that wasn't a focus of the story; it really couldn't be for the story to remain true to the plot.

I was intrigued by the concept of the Ena, near-space, far-space, and the Ionoth. It seemed like the Setari spent most of their time battling bad memories. Quite a metaphor, that. I wondered a number of times throughout the book at the ethics of the Taren's fight against the Ionoth, especially during the mission in which they were attacked by the "white-gray hairy" Ionoth. Were the Setari really protecting themselves and others, or were they invading another world and killing the inhabitants. Although the Setari said their scan indicated that the hairy humanoids were from another area, it seems like those Ionoth may have been acting simply to defend themselves. Perhaps that question will be answered in the next book.

Sigh. Next book. Perhaps I'm getting old and jaded, but I remember a time when a book was just a book, not part of a trilogy, and the whole story was told in one shot. Yes, this is the first of a trilogy. I should have confirmed that before I started, but I chose to be blissfully ignorant. I will probably read the next two books, at some point, to hopefully clear up some of my questions, but I can't help but feel a little like a sucker for getting, well, sucked in by another series. Does everything really have to be a series these days? Can't authors try to pare themselves down to one book? I'm getting skeptical enough to believe that this is done solely for money-making purposes, rather than a real need for a story to take up more than one volume. Feel free to argue with me about that.



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Book Club Selections

A month or so ago I requested input on books for my work book club to read. After compiling lots of suggestions and putting it to vote, here is the list for 2012-2013. If you'd like to read along, and comment here on my blog, that would be possibly the coolest thing ever.

2012

• January 25, 2012: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
• February 22, 2012: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
• March 28, 2012: Room by Emma Donoghue
• April 25, 2012: The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World by Michael Pollan
• May 23, 2012: Our Cancer Year by Harvey Pekar
• June 27, 2012: City of Thieves by David Benioff
• July 25, 2012: A Game of Thrones by George RR Martin
• August 22, 2012: The Fortune Quilt by Lani Diane Rich
• September 26, 2012: Arctic Chill by Arnaldur Indridason
• October 24, 2012: The Strictest School in the World: Being the Tale of a Clever Girl, a Rubber Boy and a Collection of Flying Machines, Mostly Broken by Howard Whitehouse
• November 28, 2012: Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation by Steven Johnson
• December 19, 2012: The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency #1) by Alexander McCall Smith

2013

• January 23, 2013: The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain
• February 27, 2013: Bossypants by Tina Fey
• March 27, 2013: The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown
• April 24, 2013: Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach
• May 22, 2013: The Professor's Daughter by Joann Sfar and Emmanuel Guibert
• June 26, 2013: Muhammad: A Story of the Last Prophet by Deepak Chopra
• July 24, 2013: Faceless Killers by Henning Mankell
• August 21, 2013: Comfort Food by Kate Jacobs
• September 25, 2013: The Garden of Finzi-Continis by Giorgio Bassani
• October 23, 2013: The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl by Barry Lyga
• November 20, 2013:Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde
• December 18, 2013: A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin

A Thousand Splendid Suns

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I didn't realize until I reached the end that I listened to the abridged version of this audiobook. Despite that, I thought it was a terrific story, and I'm sure that the main plot points were covered.

The woman who read the book was fantastic. Her accent is lovely. I also appreciated getting her pronunciation of people and place names. "Miriam" and "Laila" sound like music with her accent. And the way she said "Afghanistan" was very interesting.

Now, to the story itself. Heart-wrenching and hopeful at the same time. It was such a stark examination of life for women in Afghanistan. The differences between their lives and my own, and those of women I know in the Western world, was startling. Where we'd say "Leave the bastard" or "Just say no to your father," such things were impossible for Miriam and Laila. That's the heart-wrenching part. The hopeful was that they kept going. These women made lives for themselves, in spite of the way they were treated.





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Win ARCs of Lola, Crossed, and Shatter Me

This is your chance to win ARCs of three highly anticipated YA novels: Lola and the Boy Next Door, Crossed, and Shatter Me. See Tahereh Mafi's blog for instructions. And good luck!

Divine Justice by Cheryl Kaye Tardiff

First of all, I must say that I got this book for free from BookRooster.com.

The main part of this story takes place in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, where a prominent politician has been found murdered, and another comes up missing. Three members of the CFBI's PSI department -- agents with psychic abilities -- are on the case.

This murder case, dubbed "The Parliament Murders," is bracketed by the story of one of the agents being in a coma in the hospital some time after the main events of the book. The story of the Parliament Murders is being told through her dreaming/reliving during her coma. (There is no way of knowing how her subconscious could know things that happened when she wasn't present. Just one of many plot weaknesses.)

About a quarter of the way through the book I thought "This sounds like The Manchurian Candidate. I bet these guys are being brainwashed." Around the half-way mark I figured out who the bad guy was. I was really hoping I was wrong, but, no. I was absolutely correct. Disappointing.

I didn't buy the "story within a story" construct in this book. The coma and events immediately after the main character wakes up seemed completely superfluous. The main story could have easily, and less confusingly, been told on its own. As this was the second book in a series, perhaps the first book sets up this premise in a more believable way.

This book also suffered from simplistic, obvious, and repetitive dialogue. "We have to keep looking for connections between [the victims]." They were closing in on the link between the two men. They just had to figure it out before the second was killed. Yes, yes, we got that already, we understand. Write better dialogue or stop talking. I hope that real (C)FBI agents don't state the obvious so often and with such conviction.

There were editing problems, both with spelling (lose vs. loose), and with continuity. For example, one of the characters notices twice that there are no cars in the parking lot; two characters power off their phones, then one uses her (now powered) phone to unlock a door. First someone was shot in the head, then the bullet wound is in his arm.

Finally, I had to wonder if this heroine is the most stupid cop on the planet. She decided to confront the suspect with no backup and without telling anyone where she's going, and didn't realize her mistake until she was confined with him on a yacht headed to open water? And then she willingly drank a beverage he gave her, when his victims had all been drugged with Rohypnol? The conversation between her and the culprit was laughable and, again, repetitive.

I wanted to like this book. I didn't. If I hadn't committed to finishing it in order to write the review for BookRooster.com, I would have stopped reading half way through.

As a side note, the formatting was completely messed up, making it difficult to follow the flow of dialog, especially, as statements by a given character would often be split by line breaks that shouldn't have been there. 

Huntress (Grace Murphy, #1) by Nicole Hamlett

Huntress (A Grace Murphy Novel)

First of all, I need to say that I got a review copy of this book for free from BookRooster.com. I'm glad I did, for positive as well as negative reasons, all of which I'll get to.

Huntress is the introduction to Grace Murphy, a romance writer who, on the day her divorce is final, meets her biological mother, the goddess Diana. Grace is the snarky mother of an 11-year-old boy, with whom she seems to have a very loving, trusting relationship. She shares custody of her son with her husband, who has Dylan on some weekends and holidays.

Now, on to the reasons why I'm glad I got this book for free. First, it introduced me to this very fun and interesting character. Grace is irreverent, self-deprecating, and can't seem to keep her mouth shut. I like the universe this author has created, with her take on Greek mythology. There are also some interesting supporting characters, such as Drew, Rose, and Zachary.

However, I found my enjoyment of the book dampened quite a bit by editing problems. There were some serious punctuation issues, such as a blatant misuse of semi-colons; continuity issues (when, exactly, did the ex-husband first encounter Drew?); and the confusion of words ("physics" and "psychics" getting mixed up -- she meant to use the former).

In addition to the editing problems, I think that Grace's voice, while fun and, as I said before, irreverent, may be off-putting to some. She is definitely not a narrator who will last the ages. Her language is very 2010.

I hope that the editing issues are taken care of in the next book in the series. Oh, yes, this is the first book in a series. And that particular point is not a topic to be discussed here. Just know that, if you choose to read this book, you won't be getting what I would consider a professional product. Enjoy the story, try to ignore the mistakes.

(This review originally posted on Goodreads June 26, 2011.)

Book Club

I've been a member of my workplace book club since January of this year. I'm ashamed that it took me so long to join, but I'm now very happy to be there every month.

A couple of months ago, my dear colleague Karen Morse left us to move to greener pastures. She had been the fearless leader of our book club, and I took over from her very capable hands.

We're now at the point of needing to select books to read for the next couple of years. The following categories were developed a couple of years ago, and I think we're going to stick with them. We will identify books for each category, and then put it up for vote by all members of the Library staff.

I need you!!! If you have any suggestions for any of these categories, I'd love it if you could add it in comments. Thank you so much!

Now, the categories:

• Biographies & Memoirs 
• Classics and Contemporary Classics 
• General Fiction (non-genre) 
• General Nonfiction 
• Graphic Novels 
• Historical Fiction 
• Mystery/Thriller/Horror 
• SciFi and Fantasy 
• Women's Fiction (formerly romance)
• World Literature (formerly literary fiction)
• Young Adult

Cuban Black Bean Patties with Pineapple Rice

I love this recipe, and it's something the whole family (except Ethan, who's persnickety) will eat. Very, very tasty. I used brown rice instead of white rice for a little extra fiber. A friend of mine gave me some blood orange-infused salt, and I used that in the rice. It gave a lovely orange aroma to the dish. Quite lovely. :)

Anna and the French Kiss

While I was on spring vacation with the boys I read Anna and the French Kiss, after hearing so much about it from Twitter friends. They were absolutely right. It was terrific. Cute, funny, and with realistic teen characters. Nothing supernatural, no one fighting to the death (even though it may have felt like that to the characters. It was refreshing to read a book that was complete unto itself, that wasn't the self-conscious start to yet another series. I highly recommend it. :)

Books Update

I finished reading Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare today. I also read The Day the Falls Stood Still by Cathy Marie Buchanan for my book group. You can read my reviews for both over at Goodreads.

Knitting

I'm listening to the On Point replay of today's show on the resurgence of knitting. Looking at the blogs that are listed on that page, I realized that I haven't said anything here about my own knitting resurgence.

I was taught to knit when I was an exchange student in Sweden in 1985-1986. My host mother taught me, and I learned the terminology in Swedish. I also knit "backward" from most Americans, so I'm a bit of an anomaly among local knitters.

I hadn't knitted for years, but started up again last fall at the urging of some lovely ladies that I work with. I found out that they get together to knit at lunchtime every day. I had been thinking longingly of knitting for a while, but didn't think I had time to do it. You know, two boys who are involved in EVERY sport, a husband, a full-time job, and all that reading I'll never get caught up on. Anyway, I figured that if they were getting together every day, I didn't really have an excuse not to join them.

I started with some yarn I had laying around, knitting up a scarf with a pattern I found online. It's pretty, but you can tell my tension is very uneven. I then had the great good fortune to win a knitting basket at our workplace United Way raffle. Therein I found some lovely yarn, notions, and books to get the creative juices flowing. Since then, I've knitted scarves, hats, and ear warmers for my family. I've found that the boys' sports are actually great for knitting: I can work on a project and keep an eye on them at the same time. Bonus!

At Christmas I got my sisters, nieces, and nephews involved by buying them each a Klutz knitting book. I wanted them to learn something that I was having so much fun with.

I realized the other day that I haven't knit anything for myself other than the hat from the Klutz book. I've decided to make myself a scarf that will match my winter jacket, and have ordered some lovely cotton yarn, tagging onto an order one of my knitting colleagues is placing. I can't wait to get started. :)

Now my oldest son, Will, has told me he wants to learn how to knit. I'm wondering if I should have him start with the Klutz book, or try to teach him myself.