Quick Note
Folks, I’d hoped to review Rosemary Edghill’s VENGEANCE OF MASKS at Shiny Book Review this evening — in fact, I’d planned on reviewing it all week.
However, I’m feeling very poorly this evening for the second night in a row. (I think it has something to do with the heat and my asthma not mixing.) Because of that, I’m not able to do much — even writing a short blog about Ben Sheets’s superlative start for the Atlanta Braves today was nearly too much. And writing a quick, fact-based blog like that one is much easier to write than a book review any day of the week.
That’s why I’ve decided that I’m going to take a break for the rest of this weekend in order to come back stronger on Monday. Because of that, the review for VENGEANCE OF MASKS will be rescheduled for this upcoming week at SBR, with all apologies to Ms. Edghill and to anyone else who may have been awaiting my review.
While you’re waiting for that review, I’d like to suggest something. Go buy anything Rosemary Edghill currently has available, regardless of genre. (These books include DEAD RECKONING, VENGEANCE OF MASKS, the Bast mysteries included in BELL, BOOK, AND MURDER, and THE WARSLAYER — the latter should be available from Baen Books directly as an e-book.) She writes extremely well, always has great craftsmanship, and her storytelling ability is without peer. So meander on over to Amazon, or BN.com, or better yet to her page at Lulu (where the information for VENGEANCE OF MASKS resides), and get yourself one of her books, pronto.
While you do that, I’ll do my best to recover my energy so I can do justice to her extremely interesting and thought-provoking book, VENGEANCE OF MASKS (genre: dark fantasy/urban fantasy hybrid).
Have a great weekend, folks. See you back here on Monday.
Ben Sheets’s Comeback Continues: Sheets Wins Again
Today, July 21, 2012, was the day for Ben Sheets’s second major league start for the Atlanta Braves against the Washington Nationals. And once again, Sheets pitched like the ace he once was (and apparently is again), giving up no runs, five hits, three walks, and six strikeouts. Sheets also extended his scoreless innings streak to twelve; his record is now 2-0.
Here’s a link to a very good story from Jeff Schultz of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution about Sheets that was written prior to today’s game; this is a story you really want to read if you care about baseball at all, as it references exactly what happened to Sheets and why it is so remarkable that he’s been able to come back at all — much less pitch at an astonishingly high level.
Here’s a quote from that story:
Understand, this isn’t a simple comeback. Before surgery in 2010, Sheets’ right elbow looked like the after-shot of Kabul. The guy is relatively bionic. In 2010, doctors knew surgery was needed to fix a torn flexor tendon for the second time in two years. But when Dr. Keith Meister opened up the right arm, two other problems were confirmed: 1) a torn ulnar collateral ligament, requiring Tommy John surgery; 2) damage to his pronator tendon.
You don’t need to have a Ph.D or even excel in the “Operation” game to know that if a 32-year-old pitcher is having a ligament and two tendons in his throwing elbow stitched, tied and duct-taped, his next career decision likely would involve either starting a tractor or coaching youth baseball (he opted for the latter).
And here’s a quote from today’s story at Yahoo Sports regarding Sheets’s start against the Nationals, starring Braves catcher Brian McCann:
”It’s been a huge pickup for us,” McCann said of adding Sheets to Braves rotation. ”To come out here for his two starts and pitch the way he has. Hasn’t given up a run, he’s pounding the zone and the more you’re around him the more you know why he’s so successful. He’s a competitor, he knows what he’s doing.”
When a team’s catcher is happy with a pitcher — much less this happy — you usually have a happy team. And considering how well Sheets has pitched since his return, I’d be astonished if the Braves weren’t absolutely ecstatic about his contribution to their ballclub.
Just reviewed Stephanie Osborn’s 3rd Novel in Her “Displaced Detective” Series
As the title says, I just reviewed Stephanie Osborn’s THE CASE OF THE COSMOLOGICAL KILLER: THE RENDELSHAM INCIDENT at Shiny Book Review. This is a worthy third book in her “Displaced Detective” series featuring Sherlock Holmes, hyperspatial physicist Skye Chadwick, and some new problems that need to be solved by the team of Holmes and Chadwick.
Now, as this is a third book, I’d been expecting there to be some drop-off — not of quality, per se, but maybe a little bit less inventiveness or freshness. But that didn’t happen; the “slow” section here contains a number of important plot-points, plus deepens and broadens the romance of Holmes and Chadwick markedly. And the plot contained more than enough bells and whistles to hold my interest — not that I need such, but nevermind — while the book ends on a rather gentle cliffhanger. (That last seems like a contradiction in terms, but isn’t; while I can’t explain things better than this without blowing the plotline out of the water, suffice it to say that the last we see of Holmes and Chadwick, it’s obvious that they’re still working hard to solve the various mysteries.)
Anyway, please go read my review, then go grab Ms. Osborn’s book! (Anyone who can come up with a plot that features both physics and Sherlock Holmes is a winner in my book.)
Second Blog-i-versary . . . Some Quick Hits
Folks, my second “blog-i-versary” passed on July 10, 2012, without comment, mostly because the weather in Wisconsin has been extremely hot. While I’ve continued to blog here and there, certainly this hot and humid weather we’ve had — which has destroyed crops, damaged lives, and caused all sorts of financial problems, as our 2012 summer is being compared to other, difficult summers like the summer of 1988 and worse, the “Dust Bowl” summer of 1936 — has gotten in the way.
That said, I’m very pleased that my blog is still here, two years after I started it (two years and a week, to be precise). I hadn’t anticipated this, but I suppose this blog still being in existence shows a good side to the Law of Unintended Consequences after all.
Here’s a few quick hits as to what’s going on right now in Wisconsin, aside from our dreadful weather:
Last night, the Milwaukee Brewers dropped a heartbreaker, 3-2, to their arch-rivals the St. Louis Cardinals. Particularly troubling in this loss is the fact that the Brewers led, 2-0, in the top of the ninth; closer John Axford got the first two outs (though both were long fly balls caught close to the fence, meaning both hitters nearly hit the ball out of the park rather than made these long, loud outs), then loaded the bases. Eventually, three runs scored, and Axford was removed from the game; Kameron Loe got the last out.
So, what happened to the Brewers in the bottom of the ninth? The hitters put too much pressure on themselves, that’s what. Corey Hart, who’d hit his 17th HR of the year earlier in the game, went to a 3-2 count before striking out. The next hitter, Rickie Weeks, took a few pitches, but also ended up striking out. And Martin Maldonado — well, he didn’t do anything, either. So the Cardinals closer, Jason Motte, got the three outs he needed, while the Brewers closer, Axford, was wild in and out of the strike zone and didn’t pitch effectively. Now, it looks like Axford may have been removed from his job as Francisco Rodriguez (K-Rod) has 19 holds and 1 save, and has looked far better than “Ax,” and no one can blame Brewers manager Ron Roenicke for wishing to try someone else at this point.
Oh, yes — the guy who started the game, rookie pitcher Mike Fiers, pitched extremely well (again), but didn’t get the win due to Axford’s meltdown. (I like Axford a great deal, and believe part of his troubles with command of his fastball and breaking ball come down to the usual problems relief pitchers have from time to time. But I have to call ’em as I see ’em.)
Otherwise, I’m continuing to work on AN ELFY ABROAD, and have some reviews planned this week at Shiny Book Review for Stephanie Osborn’s third book in her “Displaced Detective” series, and for Rosemary Edghill’s VENGEANCE OF MASKS . . . I may even review another book on economics, to keep my hand in the game. So stay tuned.
Finally, I played a concert with the Racine Concert Band last Sunday; for the record, I played second alto saxophone, and didn’t have any solos, though I did have a few good parts. I was glad I was able to play the concert despite the heat and humidity; the crowd at the concert (which was free, as it always is) was a bit diminished, possibly due to the heat, but we still had a couple of hundred people there and that’s encouraging. This was my fourth service for the band this year; I have a few more planned later this month and into August, though I hope to be playing clarinet at that time (I say “hope” because originally I’d been scheduled to play my clarinet on the last concert).
But whether I’m playing in the group or not, if you live in Southeastern Wisconsin and love free, live music, you owe it to yourselves to get out to the Racine Zoo and take in the Racine Concert Band. Concerts are at 7:30 p.m. on Sundays in July, and are at 7:00 p.m. on Sundays in August through August 19. There’s a wide variety of music, including marches, show tunes, light operas/operettas, and more — and best of all, it’s free.
Now back to our regularly scheduled sweltering, already in progress.
Ben Sheets On the Comeback Trail; Wins First Start Since 2010
Today, Ben Sheets won his first start since 2010 — his first start since returning from the most extensive arm surgery in the history of major league baseball in mid-2010 — as he led the Atlanta Braves to a 6-1 win over the New York Mets. Sheets pitched six scoreless innings, threw 88 pitches (57 for strikes), gave up two hits, walked one, and struck out five.
As Atlanta SB Nation.com put it, “Ben Sheets probably couldn’t have imagined a better debut.”
Carroll Rodgers, writing for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, said this about Sheets’s debut start:
Sheets threw a 91 mph strike to Ruben Tejada to start his day, setting up his first strikeout, and finished it with a 91 mph fastball to strike out David Wright for his fifth. Sheets allowed only two hits in between, while walking one, and threw 57 of his 88 pitches for strikes. He outdueled Johan Santana to win his first game since July 10, 2010 with Oakland against the Angels.
Rodgers also mentioned this toward the end of his blog post:
Sheets, who hadn’t pitched since July 19, 2010 for the Athletics, showed what the Braves have been raving about in his work on the side and in the minors. His fastball velocity was back to 90-92 mph, and he reached back and found 93 mph a few times, which he used to retire Wright. He also mixed in a sharp curveball that he was known for on those days like the one when he struck out 18 Braves in 2004.
Rodgers also had quotes from Sheets in this article, also from the AJC:
“It was pretty incredible,” Sheets said afterward. “Honestly in my mind, two years ago I was done, which was fine. I gave myself ‘coach of the year’ award in youth ball. Somebody asked me ‘Who gives that?’ I said ‘I give it to myself.’”
(Note that Sheets has never been known for his humility, which is why this quote made me laugh out loud.)
Another quote from Sheets, also from Rodgers’s second article at the AJC:
“I feel like myself,” said Sheets, who out-dueled Johan Santana for his first win since July 10, 2010 with the Athletics. “That’s one thing I can say I never felt like in Oakland.”
And here’s a quote from long-time Braves star (and likely Hall of Famer) Chipper Jones:
“We are ecstatic,” Jones said. “We get contributions like that from him, I see us winning a lot of games here in the second half.”
See, the Braves see Sheets as what he is: an ace. Sheets also is the type of guy who would not have come back unless he felt he could pitch extremely well — it’s either all or nothing with Sheets, and it’s always been that way. So the Braves, who apparently kept a close eye on Sheets once Sheets’s agent Casey Close started putting out feelers earlier this year regarding a potential comeback, has shown itself to be extremely prescient in signing Sheets.
As far as the Milwaukee Brewers go (Sheets’ old team), they won today, too. Yovani Gallardo had 14 strikeouts in a 4-1 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates. Gallardo is one of two aces on the Brewers current staff; his record raised to 8-6.
But the day belonged to Sheets, all the way along . . . and this Brewers fan couldn’t be happier. Way to go, Ben!
Just Reviewed Osborn’s First Two “Displaced Detective” Novels at SBR
Tonight’s new review at Shiny Book Review is for Stephanie Osborn’s first two books in her Displaced Detective series about Sherlock Holmes as brought into the modern day via modern physics. These are fun reads, but more to the point, they’re faithful to the spirit of Holmes in milieu and mythos. Osborn came up with a great way to start her series by using modern-day physics along with the “World as Myth” concept as delineated by Robert A. Heinlein; the two together explain how Holmes could be a real person, and then how it came to be that Osborn’s hyperspatial physicist, Skye Chadwick, was able to rescue Holmes before he ended up dead at Reichenbach Falls.
These are really fun reads that make good sense in context. The mysteries Holmes solves are appropriately complex (yes, I said that at SBR, too, but it’s a phrase I don’t get to use much, thus the repetition), Holmes’s abilities seem realistic (for him), and the halting romance that grows between Holmes and Chadwick is worth the price of admission all by itself.
But do expect there to be a romance, especially in the second book, and do expect it to be PG-13. This makes sense in context, and it’s something I applauded in my review — but some Holmes-o-philes may not wish to see their hero in love. (If so, the more fool, they. Osborn does a great job showing how these two extremely brilliant people could and did fall in love, and it works, plot-wise. To great effect.)
Seriously. Go read my review of these two fine books, THE CASE OF THE DISPLACED DETECTIVE: THE ARRIVAL and THE CASE OF THE DISPLACED DETECTIVE: AT SPEED. Then go buy the books already.
July 2012 Odds and Ends
I’ve had a number of comments recently about various things, but none of them have reached the level of a full blog post. So here goes with the latest edition of Odds and Ends.
First, I’m taking the summer off from watching television. This is the main reason I haven’t written about the fourth season of “Drop Dead Diva,” despite all the hits I’ve had on my review of the season three finale. I do know that Fred the angel is off the show and there’s a new angel there instead — an impossibly gorgeous male who, sight unseen, bothers me. But that’s the only thing I’ve really gathered, aside from the fact that Kim Kardashian seems to have a recurring role this season.
Second, the Wisconsin GOP has, quite predictably, slammed the District 21 state Senate election, all because Democrat John Lehman won over R Van Wanggaard. Rep. Robin Vos (R-Rochester) has led a number of prominent Rs in proclaiming that the Racine elections had “numerous errors” and that supposedly, Racine County must get its act together before the November elections — all because we had the temerity to throw out our one-year Senator when the rest of the state held the course.
I have no problem with former Senator Wanggaard saying “I shall return!” as if he’s a modern-day incarnation of General Douglas MacArthur, because he’s a politician and that’s what politicians of either party tend to say. (Maybe not quite so stridently as Wanggaard. But then again, as the only R to go down on June 5, 2012, I suppose he must feel terrible.) Nor am I upset with Wanggaard for asking for a recount, pointing out various issues he and his staff have been alerted to, etc. — he’s a politician, so he has to say those things. And considering he lost by less than 2% of the vote, I suppose that’s his right.
My problem remains with the Wisconsin GOP as a whole; they didn’t slam Waukesha County in 2011 when there were massive problems there — problems that make the City and County of Racine’s issues look extremely small in comparison — because those problems benefitted them.
So, if an election goes the Rs way, even if there are terrible and systemic problems with a County Clerk like Waukesha’s Kathy Nickolaus, the Rs are OK with it. But if the election goes the way of the Ds, the Rs aren’t standing for it, even though whatever problems Racine had were due to an overwhelmingly high turnout (the highest on record for any election, including Presidential elections), nothing more. That’s why the WI GOP’s stance regarding Racine County’s recall election smacks of sour grapes as well as political expediency; I remain unimpressed.
Third, what on Earth does the United States House of Representatives, led by Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner, think they’re doing taking vote after vote to repeal Obama’s national health care plan? (Especially as they know, just as the rest of us do, that the US Senate will never go along with them.) Here we are in a jobless recovery; the economy, overall, is terrible. We need jobs, we need more economic development, and we need it right now. Yet they’d rather waste our time, and our taxpayer dollars, by taking these unnecessary votes. This is political grandstanding and it should not be tolerated. Period!
Fourth, are the Milwaukee Brewers going to get any better this year? And will Zack Greinke stay a part of the team? Stay tuned.
Fifth, and finally, the summer is a bad time for me. It’s not just my asthma, or other associated summertime health woes, which have been exacerbated as we’re having one of the hottest, driest summers on record in SE Wisconsin. It’s that I have a number of important dates on the calendar that I observe — my wedding anniversary. My late husband’s birthday (even though he didn’t observe it). Etc. — and the fact that I must observe them alone, always alone, is a trial.
Look. I despise the fact that I’m a widow. (Very few people will come right out and say this, but I will.) If I had the power, my husband would be alive right now and I’d not be typing out these words. But I’m human, mortal, fallible, all that, and I don’t have that power.
What I do every day is to try to find some meaning, some purpose, in whatever remains of my life. I continue to write (as you see). I continue to edit. I play my instruments. I compose music when I have the time, energy, and ideas. I talk with my friends, as I’m able . . . all the things I have to do in order to continue to stay alive in any sense.
But of course it’s difficult to be without the love of my life. I’d be lying if I said anything else.
And that difficulty is made much worse because the person who understood me best since that time is also dead — my good friend Jeff, whom I’ve discussed many times on this blog. That I haven’t been able, as of yet, to go to Colorado and make any peace whatsoever with his passing has assuredly not helped.
I know it doesn’t matter — would never matter — to Jeff where I mourn. But it would help me to go there and visit the places he told me about. Which is why at some point I will go there; it’s just a matter of when. Let us hope that down the line, I will find enough work at a good rate of remuneration, so I can finally take that trip.
Just Reviewed Alethea Kontis’s “Enchanted” at SBR
Folks, my newest review for Alethea Kontis’s ENCHANTED is up at Shiny Book Review right now, so you might want to go take a look at it.
(I’ll pause while you have your chance to click on the SBR link.)
Now, as for what I thought of it? It’s a good book, a well-told fairy tale that mixes a number of traditional fairy tales with elements of both Patricia C. Wrede’s and Orson Scott Card’s work; while not particularly original, per se, it is charming, and I enjoyed the romance between Prince Rumbold and Sunday Woodcutter no end.
Overall, if you’re looking for a fun fairy tale that won’t demand too much from you, Alethea Kontis’s ENCHANTED will be right up your alley. (And I’ll admit it; sometimes that’s all I want in a book, a fun read that will transport me away from the cares of the world for a few, short hours.) I enjoyed it, and look forward to whatever Ms. Kontis writes next.
Just Reviewed Gideon Lewis-Kraus’s “A Sense of Direction” for SBR
Folks, if you haven’t read any of Gideon Lewis-Kraus’s essays before, you may be bemused by his new non-fictional epic, A SENSE OF DIRECTION: Pilgrimage for the Restless and the Hopeful, which I just reviewed over at Shiny Book Review. This is a book that’s partly a coming of age treatise for Lewis-Kraus himself due to his difficult relationship with his openly gay rabbi father, but mostly a reflection on the need for modern-day pilgrimages — both internal ones, and external ones.
Of course, the three pilgrimages Lewis-Kraus does are all external — the first one he does is the Camino de Santiago (colloquially called “the Camino”), the second to the 88 Temples of Shikoku, a circular pilgrimage, and finally he goes to Uman with his father and brother, Micah, to take part in the Orthodox Jewish celebration of Rosh Hashanah despite the fact that the Orthodox Jews don’t approve of gay men (or women) and that Lewis-Kraus isn’t particularly religious, though he is spiritual. This latter pilgrimage has the most to do with Lewis-Kraus’s coming of age narrative, but lest you think that’s all Lewis-Kraus has in store for you, think again . . . there are meditations on the greedy people of Uman (who live for a full year off the proceeds of these Orthodox Jewish men’s celebration of Rosh Hashanah), how the Orthodox men have only this one safety valve all year to look forward to, and how Lewis-Kraus’s father the gay rabbi seems to have the most compassion for them, all while wondering how anyone can put up with the cynical people of Uman.
A SENSE OF DIRECTION is a moving work of non-fiction that feels palpably real and makes clear the need for pilgrimages even in the modern era. It’s also bitingly funny, trenchant, honest to a fault, and shows the troubles even an extremely intelligent man can have in attempting to claim his adult self.
Simply put: go read my review, then go read the book, soonest. (You’ll be glad you did.)
Barb Caffrey's Blog 