Archive for the ‘Criticism/critique’ Category
Brian Sabean Goes Ballistic re: Posey/Cousins collision; also, a Ben Sheets update
What on Earth has gotten into Brian Sabean?
Sabean is the General Manager of the San Francisco Giants, and is mad as Hell over the 5/25/11 collision between Florida Marlins catcher Scott Cousins (who was trying to score a run) and Giants catcher Buster Posey (who was trying to block home plate and keep Cousins from scoring). Posey sustained a serious injury and is now out for the season; for more on his injury, check out this article.
Now, I can understand why Giants fans — and most baseball fans in general — want Buster Posey to play, not see him sitting on the DL with a long-term injury to deal with. He’s an exciting young player and fans love him. I also can understand why the Giants, and Sabean in particular, would be angry that Posey was injured, especially as some others, including Mike Matheny, seem to believe that Cousins was most definitely at fault in that collision and that Cousins may well have been trying to injure Posey (even though Cousins insists he wasn’t and has apologized several times; check this article out if you don’t believe me).
But why this sort of incendiary rhetoric, all available at this link?
Sabean did not pull any punches during an interview on KNBR on Thursday, calling Cousins’ targeted hit “malicious” and saying he didn’t blame Posey for refusing to return an apologetic phone call.
“Why not be hard-nosed?” Sabean said. “If I never hear from Cousins again or he never plays another game in the big leagues, I think we’ll all be happy.”
Asked if perhaps those words were too harsh, Sabean didn’t back down. In fact, he left little doubt that the Giants are bent on getting some on-field vengeance.
“He chose to be a hero in my mind, and if that’s his flash of fame, that’s as good as it’s going to get, pal,” Sabean said. “We’ll have a long memory. Believe me, we’ve talked to (former catcher Mike) Matheny about how this game works. You can’t be that out-and-out overly aggressive. I’ll put it as politically as I can state it: There’s no love lost, and there shouldn’t be.”
Now, the Giants have apologized for Sabean’s comments, which to my mind is way too little, way too late, especially as Cousins has been getting death threats; see this link for details about that.
And as if that wasn’t enough, Joe Torre, who now works for Major League Baseball, wants to talk with Sabean (see this link for details). Torre is a well-respected former manager and catcher, and knows the game as well as anyone living; Sabean should listen to Torre, who I hope will tell Sabean the equivalent of this: “Shut up. Shut up now. Don’t be any more stupid than you have to be; you’ve already said more than enough as it is.”
Torre telling Sabean off is the best thing to do — but in case Torre’s message doesn’t take, I hope Torre will exercise his authority and suspend Brian Sabean as a fine, no matter how hefty, will not do. Sabean’s comments should not be tolerated, no matter how frustrated Sabean is, and no matter how much Sabean appreciates Posey’s play (or Posey’s positive effect at the box office).
Now for something completely different, as I’d like to pass along some good news regarding Ben Sheets.
As previously reported, Sheets had a huge surgery on his elbow last year and his prospects for playing at all in 2011 looked dubious. While I’m not sure if he will be able to pitch this year, I did find one Web site, here, that says Sheets is rehabbing in Arlington, Texas as of March of this year — and Sheets wouldn’t be rehabbing so seriously if he wasn’t at least going to try to make a comeback ASAP.
Sheets being in Texas makes perfect sense for a wide variety of reasons. Sheets’ home is in Louisiana, so Texas isn’t all that far away, comparatively; better yet, it’s where his former Milwaukee Brewers pitching coach Mike Maddux now makes his home (as the pitching coach for the Rangers, naturally). It also seems that Sheets is comfortable with the doctors in Texas and that his rehab is proceeding well.
All I can say is this — good for you, Ben, and I truly hope you’ll be like Chris Capuano this time next year. (As in, you’ve made it all the way back, you’re pitching as well or better than ever, and your second major rehab stint will have gone successfully.)
Just reviewed Susan Elizabeth Phillips’ “Call Me Irresistible” for SBR
Folks, here’s the link for tonight’s review at Shiny Book Review, first off:
Now that you’ve seen that, and have had a chance to read my review of CALL ME IRRESISTIBLE, let me elaborate a little more about Ms. Phillips’s newest effort.
First, this is Ms. Phillips’s twenty-first novel, and yet she couldn’t come up with a better “flaw” than the hero, Ted Beaudine, being a guy who makes love to his partner for several hours at a time? No matter how well this was described or set up this isn’t enough of a “flaw” — how can someone being so caring of his partner be considered a flaw by anyone?
I don’t care that Ted’s intended, Meg Koranda, believed she wasn’t “special” enough because this apparently was Ted’s standard practice with his girlfriends (Ted’s a serial monogamist, so he only has one GF at a time). Meg knows this is Ted’s policy — Ted is much too nice to point this out himself, of course, as that would be really crude — because her best friend Lucy had been engaged to Ted and nearly married him and said so. (Lucy jilted Ted at the altar.) Lucy’s comments to Meg add up to this: Ted’s every woman’s dream lover, and he’s world-class in the bedroom department because he takes his time and makes sure his partner appreciates the act before he finally gives in and takes his own. But because Ted apparently treated every woman this way, even though he has every possible good quality there is, by the time Meg and Ted get down to business, Meg does not feel like Ted’s seeing her — and that’s just wrong.
But Meg goes too far in her beliefs, believing that Ted doesn’t really care unless he loses control now and again in the bedroom department. This just doesn’t make any sense. Most women do not wish for their intendeds to lose control in the bedroom, yet Meg does exactly this. How is this believable?
Finally, the way Meg is treated throughout isn’t really believable, either. Meg is broke, desperate, without employment and a car that’s barely running that’s also out of gas, and is stranded in Wynette, Texas, with a bunch of people who hate her because they believe that Meg somehow coerced Lucy into running off and jilting “favorite son” and town Mayor despite his young age of twenty-nine or so, Ted, at the altar. So everyone goes out of the way to insult Meg, which is a very similar plot-line to AIN’T SHE SWEET? with much less justification for it, and very few of the townspeople give Meg a chance.
While this is a very funny novel in spots, and I enjoyed it because of the humor, I didn’t feel this was up to the best novels of Ms. Phillips, which along with AIN’T SHE SWEET? include DREAM A LITTLE DREAM and LADY BE GOOD. And it’s because of the lack of a true flaw in the hero — or at least a true explicit flaw (as Ted believing Meg was at fault at first is definitely a flaw in a guy who supposedly is a world-class inventor with a genius IQ) — along with how poorly the heroine is treated that just did not sit well with me. At all.
My Review for “Nocturnal Origins” is Appreciated
Folks, Amanda S. Green, who wrote NOCTURNAL ORIGINS for Naked Reader Press, has thanked me for my review, which has to be a first. (Or is it a second? Whatever it is, it happens very infrequently, so I’m celebrating it.)
Here’s her blog:
http://amandasgreen.wordpress.com/2011/04/26/if-its-tuesday-it-must-be/
And her quote:
Nocturnal Origins is doing pretty good so far as an e-book. Actually, I’m thrilled with the preliminary numbers I’m seeing, but would, of course, love them to be better. What author doesn’t? And I’m absolutely ecstatic about the reviews it’s gotten so far. I have to give a special shout out to Barb Caffrey at Shiny Book Review and say thanks for her review.
Green also mentioned that a trade paperback version of NOCTURNAL ORIGINS is now available and can be ordered from Amazon.com here (note that I lifted this link verbatim from her Web site; I still don’t know how to embed links).
I think Amanda Green is a writer to keep your eye on, as I’ve said before; NOCTURNAL ORIGINS is a suspenseful urban fantasy with shape-shifters and is also a good, solid police procedural. I loved her main character, Detective Mackenzie “Mac” Santos (who goes from Sergeant to Lieutenant in the novel), as she’s strong but not invulnerable, and has obvious flaws. (I do love me some flawed characters; they’re easier to empathize with.) Best yet, it’s intended to be the first book in a series, which means we’ll have a great deal more to read and discuss in the months and years to come.
The Naked Reader is putting out high-quality fiction, and I urge you to check them out. Whether you’re a reader, a writer, or just a bibliophile, you’ll appreciate what NRP (the short-form version of Naked Reader Press) is doing.
Quick Note about Naked Reader
Folks, I’ve been remiss about discussing the Naked Reader, which is at nakedreader.com — they’re a new e-book place and so far, they’ve accepted extremely high-quality manuscripts from Sarah A. Hoyt (writing as both herself, and as Sarah d’Almeida), Amanda S. Green, Kate Paulk, and Dave Freer . . . and I’m fortunate enough to get to review them all for Shiny Book Review.
Note that I’ve already reviewed DEATH OF A MUSKETEER, and will shortly be reviewing Green’s NOCTURNAL ORIGINS, Freer’s WITHOUT A TRACE and Paulk’s IMPALER, and I can tell you from what I’ve skimmed that all four of these books are very, very good. Better than that, they’re all in different genres — the first is a “Three Musketeers” pastiche that adds in stronger roles for the women in the Musketeers’ lives, the second is urban fantasy/suspense novel set in the present-day, the third is an alternate history located in South Africa (with suspense) and technically would probably be classified as a young adult/YA novel, and the fourth is a historical fantasy about everyone’s favorite vampire, Vlad the Impaler, who lived in the 1400s.
But best of all? This is a new e-book publisher that seems to really be going places: they know what they’re doing, they’ve accepted very high quality stuff, and I’ve heard nothing but good things about them so far.
Plus, they want people to review their stuff, which is always an excellent sign.
So please, if you want to read good e-books, go to nakedreader.com and buy some — Heck, buy several. And if you’re looking for a good place to send your work, try them out as well, but keep an eye out as to when they’re open for submissions next and remember, always be professional.
Just reviewed “What Distant Deeps” for SBR
I just reviewed WHAT DISTANT DEEPS by David Drake at Shiny Book Review; I enjoyed it, but felt the romantic subtext was lacking. (In other words, Captain Daniel Leary doesn’t know his head from a hole in the ground when it comes to the signals his Signals Officer, Adele Mundy, has been throwing off for the past seven books and now into the eighth book of the Royal Cinnabar Navy series.)
Mind, this particular book doesn’t need romance; it has good political intrigue, some action, well-developed characterization and some very nice (and unlikely) female bonding going on between Adele Mundy and Posthuma “Posy” Belisande, sister of the current Leader of Zenobia and former mistress of the head of the Alliance. But if Captain Leary had finally bought a clue, this book could’ve been much richer and deeper; instead, it’s very good, enjoyable, and interesting, but I keep wondering what else could’ve happened, finally, in the realm of character conflict if Leary had woken up and “smelled the coffee.”
Here’s the link to the review, for your edification:
http://shinybookreview.wordpress.com/2011/03/02/what-distant-deeps-an-appealing-departure/
Enjoy!
Just reviewed “Troubled Waters” at Shiny Book Review
Folks, I enjoy Sharon Shinn’s writing a great deal, so reading TROUBLED WATERS wasn’t a hardship. That said, it’s far from the best of her novels, and her magical universe — one which deals with five elements, but not the traditional five of air, fire, earth, water and spirit (instead, hers are water, air/spirit, earth, fire, and the Hunti or wood/bone element) — was not that unusual.
What was unusual, though, was a plot structure that required nearly a full half of the book before Zoe Ardelay (the main character) figures out who and what she is, and nearly a fourth of the book before Zoe makes much sense (as she starts off the book in the throes of grief as her father has just died; her mother died years before). That Zoe’s personality was more or less subsumed by her father, one of the Sweela element (or fire/mind), is a given; how she comes out of that is unusual and worth reading, yet is so slow-going that at times it was nearly torturous compared to other Sharon Shinn novelizations.
At any rate, here’s my latest review:
http://shinybookreview.wordpress.com/2011/01/22/sharon-shinns-troubled-waters-is-good-but-slow/
Hope y’all will enjoy it.
Keith Olbermann Ousted by MSNBC
Keith Olbermann is out at MSNBC, and many of my friends among the Hillary Clinton Democrats (and Independents) are cheering tonight because of some of the awful things KO said about Mrs. Clinton (one of the comments was something like, “Someone should take her into a room, then only one of ’em come back out,” which was indeed a terrible comment to make).
But I feel . . . strange, I guess is the best word. I don’t think this is a triumph at all, nor do I see it as a form of karmic comeuppance. I feel that Olbermann , while controversial, would nearly always backtrack when something he believed later turned out to be wrong. And in fact, earlier this year after the shooting of Representative Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ), Olbermann apologized for any comments he might’ve made — including that awful one I alluded to above — that made violence seem at all an acceptable resort to combat any political candidate, or any politician. Olbermann has made it clear in recent weeks that the only two things people should do are these:
1) Educate yourself, and learn about the candidates.
2) Vote for the candidate who best represents you and your beliefs.
(For which I applaud him, as he’s been one of the very few commentators who’s been explicit about what should be done in the wake of what’s now being called the “Tucson Tragedy.”)
In other words, I think Olbermann has realized he made a few mistakes here and there, and had become a slightly better balanced commentator over recent weeks. I’d been heartened at this turn of events and hoped it would continue; that “Countdown with Keith Olbermann” is now off the air is, to my mind, a stunning disappointment because despite my objections to how Olbermann sometimes handled himself (especially over l’affaire Hillary Clinton in 2008), he was an entertaining host who made politics a little less complex and a lot more fun on his best nights.
Lawrence O’Donnell will be taking over Olbermann’s time slot, which isn’t an improvement by any means . . . while O’Donnell can have an interesting perspective, he doesn’t have much of a sense of humor, nor does he seem to know when to back off a little (his overwhelming personality, bigger than Olbermann’s in my opinion, does not help anything, either). Then Ed Schultz moves into O’Donnell’s late-night slot — and while I like Ed’s program a great deal, I’d rather see it at 5 PM CST where it’s always been than have it move to the 9 PM slot. And finally, Cenk Uyger, who’s called one of the “Young Turks,” is getting his own program at 5 PM for reasons that escape me . . . this, to my mind, does not bring MSNBC even close to being a balanced network, nor does it promote a balanced perspective in any way, shape or form.
Keith Olbermann has always been a lightning rod for criticism; he was one when he worked for ESPN as a sports announcer, and he’s been one at MSNBC as a news announcer. But one thing KO has never been is boring . . . so in that sense, unlike many of my HRC friends, I will miss Olbermann, especially as he really did seem to be getting a better, and more centrist, perspective lately.
Are we _really_ supposed to want to work at Wal-Mart? A rant.
Folks, I have grown tired of these “people who work at Wal-Mart” commercials, and as I just saw (and heard) another of these, I need to discuss why I do not appreciate them in the slightest.
First off, I am really surprised by the tone of these commercials. The Hispanic woman who’s proud — very, very proud — of her work at Wal-Mart because it “got her off welfare” and now she’s even gotten her son a job there — far be it for me to say, but shouldn’t she have aspired to a bit more than this?
Look. I worked as a cashier for three-plus years and a grocery stocker for a few more. I do not look down on people who do these jobs; I know they’re valuable and that many very smart, capable people work in these jobs for a time, or maybe for their entire life.
But for someone who was basically lost, by her own admission, before she started working for Wal-Mart . . . either this is TMI (too much information) or she’s dissembling a little bit to be polite. Either way, I dislike it very much and wish she’d stop.
Where you work is only part of who you are; I realize that and respect it. And I recognize that this Hispanic lady, along with the others who are proud to work at Wal-Mart and have been trumpeting it to the skies for at least three months now, are smart people who would seem to have more than one option.
So why is it, then, that whenever I think about Wal-Mart, I have the Saturday Night Live skit in my head where Wal-Mart comes in and takes over everyone, so the folks who used to have independent thoughts or were independently opposing Wal-Mart are now subsumed into its inexhaustible matrix?
These “people who work for Wal-Mart” commercials, to my mind, are sad. Just sad. Because I don’t for one minute buy that Wal-Mart is a “hip and happening” place, or one where people often go and grow . . . that some do is undeniable, but that most do? Unlikely at best.
All I can do is shake my head and change the channel when I see the “people who work at Wal-Mart” commercials, because it just rings so hollow. And false.
I cannot believe I am the only one, either, which makes me wonder why these commercials are still on the air.
If this is an attempt at framing the narrative, Wal-Mart corporate board, it’s utterly failed, because I just don’t see how pointing out a bunch of people who happen to work for you who are uncommonly cheerful about it helps get people to spend money at your stores. (If the thought behind this narrative framing failure was that if we saw the people who work at Wal-Mart that we might realize they’re just like the rest of us, well, all I can say is, “I see your point but that doesn’t mean I’m going to spend any more money in your stores.” In other words, it’s a non sequitur of major proportions.)
So with all of that being said, all I can do is hope these “people of Wal-Mart” commercials will soon go off the air. Because all I can think of when I see these bright, amiable people talk about their Wal-Mart experiences is this: “Why? Why?”
Amazon.com has some ‘splainin’ to do.
I wanted to update my publication history in my brief profile at Amazon.com (I have one because I’m an Amazon Vine reviewer), and it wouldn’t let me — it said my update contained “profanity.”
Well, here’s what I was trying to do — you tell me if there’s any hidden profanity here, OK?
Current publication history:
November 2010 — “No Rest” (poem), to Midwest Literary Magazine. Also forthcoming in the DUE NORTH anthology.
October 2010 — “The Fair at South Farallon” to e-Quill Publishing, a small yet reputable publishing house in Australia.
September 2010 — “Trouble with Elfs: A Story from the Elfyverse,” with Michael B. Caffrey, to e-Quill Publishing (reprint sale — originally published at the Written Word online magazine in February 2007).
“A Dark and Stormy Night: A Joey Maverick Adventure,” Michael B. Caffrey with Barb Caffrey, to e-Quill Publishing (reprint; originally appeared in the Written Word online magazine in May 2005).
Editor for “Columba and the Cat,” “Columba and the Committee” and “Columba and the Crossing”, three of my late husband Michael B. Caffrey’s original stories, to e-Quill Publishing, September 2010.
December 2009 — “Break the Dark Lens” (poem), to Joyful! Online magazine.
“Trouble with Elfs,” to the Written Word online magazine, February 2007.
“A Love Eternal” (poem), September 2006, to the Written Word online magazine.
“A Dark and Stormy Night,” to the Written Word online magazine, May 2005.
The BEDLAM’S EDGE anthology (Baen, 2005), “Bright as Diamonds,” with Michael B. Caffrey.
“On Collaboration” (nonfiction), to Vision Online magazine, July 2004.
Editor, ComicsBulletin.com (an occasional, yet real, gig), mid-2010 to the present.
Editor, Masterpiece Comics, 2005-2008.
Editor, the Written Word online magazine, November 2007 to January 2009 (when the WW went on hiatus).
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It was at this point I also tried to add that I am reviewing books for ShinyBookReview here at WordPress, and it kicked out. (I know Amazon.com also is holding my review for Connie Willis’s book ALL CLEAR because I’d said my Amazon.com review was a shortened version of the same review I’d done for SBR.)
I would really like to know what, if anything, was profane in my update, because I would like to know why Amazon.com refused to update my profile, or at least have some justification for why they were so very stupid this evening.
Barb Caffrey's Blog 