Wildfire A Novel by Sarah Micklem

Wildfire A Novel by Sarah Micklem

This novel is about a woman in a fantasy setting named Firethorn. It is the second book in a trilogy. I liked the first book, Firethorn. I rather like that the main character survives by her wits. She is the concubine of a knight who follows him to war. There is magic in this novel, but not the magic of blessed swords and wizards throwing lightning bolts. Firethorn is a healer and is sometimes touched by visions and dreams. She also comes from a conquered people.

The novel is very visceral. There is a lot of violence and sex (often artfully described, maybe with a hint of the Kama Sutra) . Also because the main character is a healer, we get descriptions of diseased people being cured with herbs, or women giving birth. The descriptions in the writing seem to draw from history. I can recognize ideas or images from the myths and history of India, Japan, the Celts, and the Germanic peoples.

The novel is full of surprises. At one point the main character is a bonds woman in a foreign land and eventually rises to become a courtesan. It does not end in the way I expected at all.

This novel is quite literary. It feels like it was very well researched. The descriptions are often very intense; being bitten by poisonous snakes, collecting herbs by the river beds, praying to Ardor Hearthfire, divining with finger bones.

Wildfire is 519 pages long making it an epic tome. It was hard to put down at points. It is not a typical novel at all. I like the cover art for the novel. I also liked the poetry and the few drinking songs in the novel. The authors background in graphic design shows in how well the novel is paced and laid out. Publishers Weekly gave this book a starred review.

Daily Thoughts 7/25/2009

Herbet Spenser

Today started quietly. I finished reading The Golden Rules for Managers. It was interestig. I went and got my hair cut this morning and took a long walk. I am looking at a dvd film called Waltz With Bashir by Ari Folman. It is an animated film about an Israeli soldier of the First Lebanon war who has forgotten much of what happened. It won the Golden Globe for best Foreign Language Film and National Society of Film Critics Film of the Year. I have not watched it. Last Night I watched Bolt. It is an entertaining animated kids film about a dog who does not realize he is not a superdog.

I am procrastinating a little bit on writing a review of Wildfire by Sarah Micklem. I am still thinking about it. I also have a copy of The City and The City by China Mieville sitting in front of me. They are all good books. I try not to spend too much time on books I do not like.

I have started reading The City and The City by China Mieville. The book is a murder mystery set in an imaginary city Beszel in what would be contemporary Eastern Europe. It reads like the present, but everything is just slightly off. The names sound real, but if you look closely, they are just slightly off from reality.

Daily Thoughts 7/22/2009 ( Wildfire )

Le silence intérieur, af Carlos Schwabe (1866-1926).

Daily Thoughts 7/22/2009

I have been reading more of Wildfire by Sarah Micklem. It is very raw and visceral. The story is excellent. It is a story of hardship and adventure. The main character, Firethorn, is a concubine of a knight, she is also a healer and touched by her gods. I really like the opening passage where she is struck by lightning and becomes a bit addled for several chapters.

I am looking at Yoshiro Tatsumi's A Drifting Life published by Drawn and Quarterly. It is the story of a manga artist who lives a wandering life. The book is a slice of life manga. It was recommended to me at this years Book Expo America. I really liked the Drawn and Quarterly publishers booth. There was a lot of very avant garde material.

Today has been an interesting day. I have been weeding the large print collection. I also changed the pattern for ordering large print. The bookmobile is going to be taking recommendations and I am going to be ordering from the holds purchase alerts.

I also spent some time looking at the Indienext bestseller list of the American Booksellers Association and the staff picks for Powell's bookstore as well as some staff picks from the Strand Bookstore. I often think it is good to look outside the standard library magazine sources of Library Journal, Booklist, and Kirkus Reviews.

I am using a laptop with a wireless connection and a hand scanner to check the circulation on the books. It makes the process much easier and much faster. It is something new for me. I am using just getting used to using a touchpad instead of a mouse. Sometimes I feel, I am bundle of contradictions, both very up to date and very behind.

Daily Thoughts 7/21/2009 ( Twitter )

Sculpture Maigret (1966) by Pieter d'Hont in Delfzijl/The Netherlands. Maigret is a fictional detective by Georges Simenon.

Daily Thoughts 7/22/2009

I read some more of Talent Is Overrated. At this point in the book, they are talking about innovation. They tell us that most major innovations come after at least ten years of "deliberate practice" in a given field. This is a rather interesting idea. It is different explanation than the one of natural talent. It says you must develop deep knowledge of what you are doing to create breakthrough innovations.

I picked up Wildfire by Sarah Micklem from the new books section. It is the sequel to Firethorn which is a fantasy novel. I like the cover art on these books by Mark Stutzman. I think he did an excellent job. http://www.workbook.com/portfolios/stutzman Sometimes, the artist who an author chooses to illustrate a book cover is very critical in how a book sells.

I weeded some of the large print books and the mystery books. I am also considering changing how we order large print books.

Web Bits

A book vending machine in the subways in Spain. I am wondering how long a machine like this would last in a Manhattan, New York subway. http://papercuts.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/18/the-literary-vending-machine/

http://news.bookweb.org/6924.html
Savvy Booksellers Use Twitter to Draw Crowds, Boost Sales

An opinion piece on libraries from the Christian Science Monitor. http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20090717/cm_csm/ywisner