Icy Sparks by Gwyn Hyman Rubio

Icy Sparks
by Gwyn Hyman Rubio

March is Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month. This covers a wide range of disabilities and our library is working with the ARC of Steuben County to bring information on these issues to light. That immediately brought the novel, Icy Sparks, by Gwyn Hyman Rubio to mind for me.

I picked up Icy Sparks years ago when I was substitute teaching and needed something to read while a class took a test. I found it fascinating. Icy Sparks details the onset of Tourette’s Syndrome for young Icy. Growing up during the 1950’s in rural Kentucky, Icy’s condition is inexplicable to most people. Her loving grandparents, who are raising her, are at a loss as to what to do. As the symptoms become more and more pronounced, she ends up being sent to a state asylum where her grandparents hope they will be able to make her better. They aren’t able to cure her but in the end they do give her some ways to cope a little better. Back at home, life goes on. They still don’t really know what to do with her. Growing up is never easy for a teen and it’s no different for Icy. First love, losing her grandfather, finding her place in the world - Icy does it all in her own style.

After reading through many reviews on Amazon.com, I found the reviews weighted towards five stars, but spread throughout the five star system. I find this often happens with a book which challenges your thinking. Reviews from people who have Tourette’s Syndrome, or live with someone who has it, differ widely on whether they thought the author was realistic in her portrayal. I suspect this is because Tourette’s Syndrome has many different symptoms and levels of severity. It would be impossible to say what the “typical” manifestation is.

Much of the dissatisfaction with the book voiced by reviewers came from the ending, feeling the religious angle was too blatant and the ending too abrupt. I had the feeling that the reviewers wanted a happy ending where she was fixed but, from the reading I’ve done, Tourette’s Syndrome isn’t like that. It may get a bit better as people age and they learn to cope, but it simply is. It doesn’t make you sick and it generally isn't curable. You simply learn to get on with life. In the end, Icy learns what her condition is, to cope with it and not let it define her. To my mind, it was a very affirming ending.

We all have different abilities and challenges in life. This author took on a challenging topic and created a fascinating character learning to deal with something that is outside the scope of most people's experience. Icy Sparks is at once different, unique, and also like every other teenage girl growing up. I think that makes it a perfect novel for people who want to experience something outside their own limited life experience.

Breaking Trail: Remarkable Women of the Adirondacks

Breaking Trail: Remarkable Women of the Adirondacks
By Peggy Lynn and Sandra Weber

Just in case you somehow missed the news, March is Women’s History Month! That brings with it an interesting array of programs here in the Elmira-Corning area. One of the events which will be held here at the Southeast Steuben County Library is a book talk by Professor Louise Sullivan-Blum of Mansfield University next Tuesday night at 6 pm on Breaking Trail: Remarkable Women of the Adirondacks by Peggy Lynn and Sandra Webber. (The authors will also be in town next Saturday night for a performance of the stories in the book through word and song.)

To most of us, the Adirondacks are that huge state park when you get up past Albany. We don’t really know too much about it except that it’s a pretty wild place. This book brings together twenty-five women who lived and explored the Adirondacks and celebrates their accomplishments. From a hotelier to an abolitionist, a poet to an entrepreneur, they left their mark and were marked in turn by the six million acre park.

Mrs. Arnold was a pioneering woman who raised ten healthy daughters in the wilderness of Northern Herkimer County. The girls were known for their prowess with horses and they made welcome many travelers in their home, building a small fortune from the commerce. Mrs. Arnold seemed to stave off the bad luck that had previously overshadowed the home they moved into with her smudges, that also kept the black flies at bay.

Inez Mulholland hailed from Lewis, New York and was the original super woman before women had the vote. Educated, beautiful, intelligent and energetic, she was a voice for the suffragist movement. She became a legend and symbol for the movement when she died at just thirty years old.

The history of women is not always the history that is told most often in our textbooks. The great and grand deeds of men were written about by men and published by men. In this book, we find women writing about other women, delving into our shared history, when the exploits of these women were often done quietly and yet suffered condemnation by men and society in general. Today we hold them up as paving the way for the freedoms we now enjoy. We marvel at their tenacity given the circumstances. I personally find the tales of their exploits inspiring. I hope you will too.

Science Fiction and the Nebula Awards

I’ve always been a fan of Science Fiction. I don’t remember what sparked my interest. Perhaps it was my older brothers, listening to Star Wars and Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy on the radio and watching Dr. Who on television. My father gave me a copy of Dune when I was around seventh or eighth grade because my oldest brother had introduced him to it, and he thought I might like it. It became one of my favorites.

When I went to college, I found that the local public library had a wonderful collection of science fiction and fantasy. I think it was there that I discovered Steven Brust’s Cowboy Feng’s Space Bar and Grill and Spider Robinson’s Callahan’s Crosstime Saloon series.

There are a wide variety of sub genre’s when it comes to Sci-fi. Some science fiction deals with hard sciences and soft sciences, like physics and anthropology respectively. Time travel and alternate histories may comprise some of the earliest science fiction, with H.G. Wells The Time Machine. There are space westerns like Joss Whedon’s Serenity, based on the short lived Firefly series. Apocalyptic fiction has always been of intense interest and that doesn’t seem to be slowing down, particularly as we are now in 2012, the end of the longest cycle in the Mayan calendar.

My reading interests have expanded and I don’t read as much science fiction these days. There’s less time in my schedule for reading and what I do read is spread over more genres. I decided to go for a browse through our library’s science fiction and fantasy section to see if something leapt off the shelf at me.

A series of books that I remember fondly from my time in college is the Nebula Award series. Each book offered up a feast of different science fiction and fantasy stories. They nourished me then and continue to influence me in subtle ways. The Night We Buried Road Dog by Jack Cady, the 1993 novella winner, lives on in my memory almost like a ghost. At the Rialto by Connie Willis, 1989 best novelette, plays like a wisp of music in my mind. Bears Discover Fire by Terry Bisson, 1991 best short story, chuckles gently somewhere in the night.

I picked up the Nebula Awards 27, edited by James Morrow, which offers a selection of the award winners and nominees for 1991. Some titles jumped out at me, though I don’t remember much about the stories. Standing in Line with Mr. Jimmy by James Patrick Kelly, They’re Made out of Meat by Terry Bisson, Precessing the Simulacra for Fun and Profit by Bruce Sterling and Beggars in Spain by Nancy Kress, all jogged a memory.

Standing in Line with Mr. Jimmy by James Patrick Kelly introduces Chip. He’s a small time junkie with a yen for flash but he’s been caught on a parole violation and is being sent to work on a road gang in Mexico. A mysterious man offers him a way out but can’t tell him what’s at the other end of the line. Can Jimmy think fast enough to find an alternative to Mexico and the end of the line?

They’re Made Out of Meat by Terry Bisson is a funny little story told entirely in dialogue between two space exploring beings discussing the fact that humans (a.k.a. “sentient meat”) want to make contact. They quickly decide against it and leave.

Precessing the Simulacra for Fun and Profit by Bruce Sterling is not actually a science fiction story at all, but rather an essay about the author’s experiences with literary criticism as a member of the outcast science fiction writing crowd.

In Beggars in Spain by Nancy Kress, genetic engineering makes it possible to choose many facets of a child before they are even born, including turning off the need to sleep. There doesn’t seem to be a down side to the difference, but as Leisha grows up, a significant divide develops between the “sleepers” and “sleepless.” Is mutant too strong a word?

The wonderful thing about the Nebula Award books is that they let you experience different writers and different sub-genres of science fiction in a compact format, and an award winning one at that. This, theoretically, is the cream of the crop. It is called speculative fiction for a reason. Pick one up and give your brain some food for thought.

First Grave on the Right ~ Darynda Jones

First Grave on the Right
by Darynda Jones

Is there anything better than a really good, snarky, heroine? One who gets pummeled and just keeps getting up? Meet Charlotte "Charley" Davidson, private investigator and grim reaper. Not just a grim reaper, but the portal to heaven. People actually have to go through her.

Add a ghostly lover and protector along with three dead lawyers and you get the perfect blend of paranormal romantic suspense with high levels of humor.

There's so much going on in this novel that the mystery of who killed the three lawyers gets a little lost in the mix at times, but you don't really miss it, and it does get solved in the end. The quips fly fast and furious and a plethora of intriguing characters could get a little confusing at times for readers, but I enjoyed them all.

The romance with the unknown entity gives just enough promise to tantalize but never quite carries through. (This one will slowly unfold as the series goes on.) It's a flash of heat that turns into a good, long, slow burn.

Charley isn't all snark, she has a decided soft spot for the people left behind when someone reaches an untimely demise. Charley is reminiscent of Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum but Jones takes this tough girl P.I. idea and makes it fresh.

When I first read this book last fall, I couldn’t wait to read the second book. Now I can’t wait to get my hands on the third book, which has recently come out. If you're an audio book reader, this is a great series with a spot on performance by the reader. Her gravelly voice depicts Charley perfectly, as well as a range of other characters.

I can't honestly say whether I prefer the hard copy of the book or the audio, but either way I can say I loved it!

Carrots Love Tomatoes ~ Louise Riotte

Carrots Love Tomatoes
by Louise Riotte
Well, it's that time of year. The gardening catalogs have been arriving in droves. My husband and I have already ordered nut trees, fruit trees and many seeds and other plants. We opted for open pollination and heirloom seeds so I knew we had to order early as they have limited supplies and run out of things. We've actually already recieved the seeds! The trees will arrive at the appropriate time for planning so now we have to decide exactly how we want to plant things. We also have to figure out how to deter deer and other animals from eating all the bark off the trees and killing young saplings.

We've heard of companion planting, of course. I've always planted marigolds around my garden to discourage animals from eating the vegetables and just last year I planted garlic with the rose plants because I had heard it was good for them but I didn't know exactly how. I figured it was some nutrient that they used and turned into something the roses needed. Carrots Love Tomatoes provided an explanation.

"All the alliums - garlic, onions, chives, and shallots - are beneficial to roses, protecting them against black spot, mildew, and aphids."

Anyone who has had a rose bush knows how aphids can eat those leaves right down to the stem in no time at all!

Companion planting can also help you make the most out of the space you have. (I planted the garlic right over the rose bush.) I also think of the classic three sisters tradition where the beans are planted around the corn stalks so they climb the corn stalks and the pumpkins or squash are planted around them so that their leaves shade the ground and crowd out weeds.

Information in the book is broken down into chapters including vegetables, herbs, wild plants, nuts, etc., along with chapters on garden techniques and soil improvement. There is information on what to avoid planting together as well as what to plant together. I plan to make a chart for the vegetables I will be growing with their "likes" and "dislikes" before plotting out the garden.

This will also help us make the most of the space we have, as information is provided on what can be planted close together. "Kohlrabi is mutually beneficial with onions or beets, wtih aromatic plants, and surprisingly with cucumbers, in part because they occupy different soil strata."

There are many side notes on topics like how to dry herbs or what herbs are good for tea. The chapter on wild plants contains notes on which are good food sources for humans, always a topic of interest to patrons in the library. There is information on deterring pests and model companion gardens. There are even plans for a postage stamp garden or windowsill garden. Carrots Love Tomatoes is a fairly slim volume but my husband found so much useful information in it that he ordered a copy for our home library as soon as he finished reading it.

It's been an odd winter and the growing season this year will likely provide challenges. Will it be extra wet or extra dry? Will there be more slugs and bugs than usual because we've had a fairly open winter? I wouldn't count on any predictions you've heard made so far. We'll just have to take it like it comes and adjust accordingly. The principles of companion planting are one thing that won't likely change on us though, and will help us deal with the challenges.

Graveminder by Melissa Marr

Graveminder
by Melissa Marr

“Sleep well, and stay where I put you.” You wouldn’t think you’d need to instruct the dead to stay dead, but apparently in Claysville you not only need an Undertaker with some special skills (and a capital U) but a Graveminder as well.

In a lot of ways, these are typical small town people with bent and broken relationships just trying to get by. Rebekkah and Byron were once a couple but Rebekkah severed that link in her desire to leave Claysville behind. Byron came home first, then Rebekkah returns when her grandmother, Maylene, is killed. But neither of them quite know what they’re returning to or how they will have to rely on each other.

So, who killed Maylene? Was it a vagabond? If so, why was nothing stolen? By the looks of it, it might have been a wild animal. It seems like there’s a few people in town who know more than they’re telling. Byron and Rebekkah have lots of questions, and they aren’t going to like the answers.

Graveminder by Melissa Marr is an enjoyable light read – lightly romantic, lightly creepy and a bit of a mystery. It was intriguing and yet simple. I just didn’t feel like any aspect of it was sufficiently developed. Some of the repetition could have been eliminated to make room for fuller development of characters. A good mystery will give you enough clues and red herrings so that you get to the end and, when you find out whodunit, you think, “Why didn’t I see that all along?!” The bad guys simply didn’t get enough stage time or interaction to be appreciated in this book.

A good read overall but not mindscape altering. A really good book should change the way you look at things a little, grip you and hold you in thrall. This is simply a fun read, which can be just what the doctor ordered for a little R&R.

Picture Book Artists

Picture Book Artists

Instead of looking at the story told by words in a book, today I’d like to share my appreciation for what the illustrator brings to the telling of a tale, particularly in picture books. Picture books aren’t just for tiny tots. They are for the young at heart and anyone who appreciates good art.

Did you realize that most pages in a picture book begin as full size pieces of artwork? They may be simple or ornate. We often refer to them as “the drawings” in a book, but they are more often full pieces of art in a wide variety of media before they are translated into the book format. Check out the unusual watercolors of Daniel Mackie, the oil paintings of Layne Johnson or the intricate collages of Eric Carle.

When I was in school, I learned that the line of the drawing connects to a person’s intellect while the color of the picture connects directly to a person’s emotions. I enjoy a good line drawing, as in the original Paddington Bear illustrations, but two of my preferences in children’s artwork seem to run in almost opposite directions – either dark oil paintings or very light watercolors. I adore the dark colors of Brian Lies’ Bats at the Library. The illustrations of the library are beautiful and the bats humorous, whether they are playing shadow puppets with the overhead projector, using a computer cord as a lasso to pull a big book off the shelf or making photocopies of themselves.

I also love the simple watercolors of Beatrix Potter. Whether it’s naughty Peter Rabbit in his little blue jacket stealing vegetables from Farmer McGregor or Squirrel Nutkin, who lost his beautiful plumy brown tail for his impudence, the little animals always enchant and delight.

Are there any picture books that have stayed in your memory over the years? Was it the words of the story, the images or both? I highly recommend reconnecting with this art form, whether it’s with a little one to read to or on your own.