Top Three Reads - Cause I Cheat

My apologies for the dreadfully late post. The holidays are a time when you're exposed to those relatives you only see once a year (for good reason). This year, I was the one who succumbed to the petridish of germs that was the family dinner table. So I'll keep this short.

 

I don't have 5 books to offer up as my top reads of 2012. I read plenty of books, but looking back through my read pile, I realized it was a year of solidly mediocre reads. EXCEPT - there are all kinds of books I read that I love - I just can't tell you about them. They were beta reads and either aren't published or are published just not available yet. So I can't talk them up.

 

Of the books I read that are pubbed and available, I have three:

 

3. I Could Pee on This: And Other Poems by Cats by Francesco Marciuliano 

 

It is exactly what it sounds like. A grossly anthropomorphised collection of poems your cat might have written. I have four cats. On a boat. I thought this was cute. Sue me.

 

 

 

 

 

2. This book and the next are really a tie for first place. But numbered lists don't do that. So here we are.

 

Rogue's Pawn by Jeffe Kennedy

 

This is one of those books you read and think "Hey, that was a little creepy, but man, it was a good time." You put it down and you walk away. Then tidbits of the story sneak up on you when you aren't looking and lure you back in to the world. That's one of the hallmarks of my favorite books.

 

 

 

 

 

1. The Hallowed Ones by Laura Bickle

 

I have massive cover art envy over this book. Massive "I wish I could have written something even remotely like this" envy, too. When I read The Hallowed Ones, I can see every detail of Katie's life. The farm and her community are real and I expect to visit Ohio and be able to drive a little off the beaten path and find them. Rogue's Pawn is conjures up a world that's vivid, lush and beautiful. The world of The Hallowed Ones is stark and frightening and yet just as beautiful. This is another one that replays in my head. I won't tell you which bits - that would just ruin the story for you if you haven't read it already.

 

 

Relativity

How many kinds of time are there? We have watches and clocks all around us dividing our days and nights into rational bits. We speak of our calendars demarking the days, weeks, months and years. The span of our lives is measured by two dates: born/died. Scientists speak of geologic time, usually in association with some disaster we’re all supposed to prepare for and never quite manage to because our brains can’t wrap around something that might not happen. We just don’t seem to be adapted to be able to feel or experience the weight of any time longer than about a hundred years. From some of my science reading, I gather this frustrates scientists and insurance actuaries the world over. Then there’s time as described by the universe itself – defined by the expansion of space and time. Physicists have caught tantalizing glimpses at the possibility of another layer beyond even the universe – a local ‘bubble’ of universes. If it’s even remotely true, doesn’t mean that time is a moving target?

“Sometimes you’re the windshield, sometimes you’re the bug” – Dire Straights

That certainly describes my relationship with time. It’s like the Disney joke in Aladdin, isn’t it? Time is this GREAT COSMIC thing and yet I can scrunch it down into an itty-bitty-I-can-barely-breathe prison. You’ve been there. If you have a doctor’s appointment at 3pm and the clock says 2:30pm, time is your pitiless dictator. Surely you’ve noticed that there are times when you have a long list of tasks to tick off for the day, yet it’s easy? Time rolls out before you, a rolling, endless plain of plenty. (Windshield)

Then there are days you’re lucky if a single damn thing actually gets crossed off your list – yet you spent the entire waking portion of your day running around like a mad thing? (Bug guts on the windshield of time.)

What changed? I’m going to hazard to say it wasn’t time or its passage. The earth’s rotational rate didn’t increase; the orbit around the sun remains more or less constant – or at least it’s changing at a predictable rate in tune with the expansion of the universe – which over the course of a human lifespan just isn’t worth calculating into the whole 365 and a quarter days per year. Though that begs a question. What’ll happen to calendars when expansion has shifted earth’s orbit to 365 and a third days? Oh. Never mind. The world ends next December 21^st anyway, according to the Mayan calendar. (Kidding! Of course it doesn’t – it’s merely the end of a Great Cycle on the Mayan calendar system. Sort of like throwing out your 2010 calendar and then pinning up your 2011 calendar. At least I hope. I have tickets to Africa for 2013.)

Ehem. My point being, that even if humans have imposed some rigid constructs – like hours, minutes and seconds - on time, our perception of it is malleable, flexible. Change your perception, change time.

While standing outside in the rain with my beloved felines this morning, it occurred to me, as I watched them lifting their faces to scent the breeze: This is the important stuff: My family’s happiness, my happiness (ergo my writing). If I focus on that, on what’s important to me, my perception changes. All the mindless things I’ve done to waste time without even realizing I’d been doing it fall away.

What matters to you? Figure that out and you’ll be the windshield more often.