The Agony and the Ecstasy would be a perfect alternative title for this post, a summary of my weekend, if nothing else. It started when I was blessed with an extra day off, making it a three-day weekend. Of course you cannot see or hear that I am saying this with tongue implanted firmly in cheek: I awoke Friday morning with the most agonizing bout of nausea and vomiting that I have possibly ever had. It was awful. You know that a sick day is a real sick day when you don’t feel like reading, and that was what Friday and most of Saturday was like.
But I persevered and did actually manage to have a stellar weekend when all was said and done. So please join me as I update the status of R.I.P. III, point you to a book giveaway opportunity, discuss football, share with you a series that you simply must watch, and give away our first R.I.P. III prize!!!
My second book for this year’s R.I.P. III Challenge, and incidently my second read for Bellezza’s Japanese Literature Challenge, was Natsuo Kirino’s award-winning crime fiction novel, Out. I reviewed it for the September issue of Estella’s Revenge. My review can be found here and the rest of the excellent issue of Estella’s Revenge can be found here.
If you’ve read Out or if you have any comments on the review I would love to see your comments over on the Estella’s Revenge site!
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Kailana asked that I let you all know of a week-long promotion that begins September 14th for Michelle Moran’s new book, The Heretic Queen. Moran’s book Nefertiti was one that garnered critical praise and was one that I saw on many reading challenge lists over the past year. And since ancient Egypt brings up thought of mummies (thank you Brendon Frasier) it couldn’t be a more perfect time to promote this book. Head on over to Historical Tapestry to get all the details of the many ways you have of winning yourself a free copy of the book! To learn more about Michelle Moran and her novels, please visit Michelle Moran Online.
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Thanks to a reminder from my friend Cameron (who also pushed me over the edge with Murakami and introduced me to Mitchell and Webb) I had Netflixed the 2 disc complete series of the BBC show, Spaced, last week. They arrived just in time to keep me company during my afternoon and evening alone Friday, trying to recover from the flu.
I must say right now, if you are a fan of Simon Pegg at all or are a film/tv/sci fi geek of any kind you must watch this show! The first three (of 14 total) episodes started out a bit slow for me. I enjoyed them, but wasn’t wowed by them…then episode four hit and it just took off from there! The second, and final, season was even better! From the BBC site:
Spaced chronicles the agony and ecstasy of two disillusioned Gen X-ers adrift in a world where reality is as subjective as their taste in shoes. Defeated by the horrors of apartment hunting, Tim (Simon Pegg, Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz), a love-sick skateboarder, and Daisy (Jessica Hynes [nee Stevenson], Shaun of the Dead, Son of Rambow), a wannabe journalist, pose as a professional couple to score themselves a cheap place to live. However, with their landlady’s large capacity for cigarettes and alcohol and the increase in sexual tension, Tim and Daisy’s new place is far from ordinary.
That gives you a decent overview, but the show is so much more than that. It is wildly creative on so many levels. Innovative shooting and storytelling techniques, nods to famous films and television shows (the Phantom Menace stuff of season two alone was worth watching all this for), wacky humor and surprisingly touching relationships make this show a must watch. The male version of the phenomenon of how women’s cycles can synch together was priceless. I enjoyed the show so much that I sat down and watched the episodes again straight through with my wife so that she could get in on the fun!
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What made this weekend extra special was that it was the official start of the NFL season!!! And football widows everywhere let out a collective moan!!! The start of the season also meant the start of the Fantasy Football season. In a rematch of last year’s Superbowl match-up, my team, the Conqueror Worms, was beaten again by Jeff’s team, Browncoats. Of course Jeff ended up on the real losing end of things with the loss of Tom Brady, perhaps for the year.
I’m certainly disappointed not just because I like the Patriots but also because I love the Brady/Manning rivalry that has developed over the years and because I was looking forward to seeing how the Patriots would cope with their near perfection of last year. It doesn’t look like it is to be.
Chris, you’ll be happy that I took Drew Brees as my starting QB again this year and after a very slow start he managed to at least make me competitive as the rest of the day wore on.
It truly feels like fall is here now that football has begun!!! 🙂
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I am beyond thrilled to announce that thus far we have 133 people signed up for the R.I.P. III Challenge with no doubt more to join as the time goes by! The response is a big thrill to me, more than anything because of the opportunity to meet new friends, to spend time with old friends, and to find out about a lot of great books in the process. Thank you all for the tremendous response and keep spreading the word!
I wanted to remind everyone to take advantage of the Riping Yarns Review Site when you do a review of a book for the R.I.P. III Challenge. This benefits both you and the other participants in the challenge. It benefits you by increasing your readership and it benefits the rest of us because we can take advantage of your review of the book! There are already 50+ reviews up at the site.
To make it easier to find I slightly altered the R.I.P. III banner and put an image up in my side bar that will take you directly to the review site. Enjoy!!!
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And to end today’s miscellany, I wanted to announce that author Alexandra Sokoloff heard about the R.I.P. III Challenge and is not only participating herself but provided me with a number of autographed copies of her book, The Harrowing, for giveaway prizes for the challenge. I will be posting more about Alexandra in the future but for now I wanted to get things off to a good start by giving a copy away!
All you have to do to qualify is to participate in today’s post by commenting in the comments section. You have until 11:59 p.m. CST on Wednesday, September 10th to leave a comment. I will draw the winner randomly and will announce on Thursday!
Best of luck to everyone. I got a call from my daughter that these books arrived today, so the winner’s copy is all ready to be rushed to their home in time for inclusion in this year’s challenge if you so choose!!!
Happy Monday everyone!
Update: The books did indeed arrive and Alexandra sent several hardcover copies of The Harrowing (thus I changed the above image) and 2 copies of her latest book, The Price, all of which are autographed. I am starting The Harrowing tonight and will hopefully have a review up soon. Look for more giveaways of the book in the near future!
Looks like you’re having just as much site trouble as I am.. maybe more!
But wow, what a great turn out for your challenge!
That’s so cool that Alexandra Sokoloff is participating and giving away goodies! Can you sign me up for the R.I.P. on the Yarns page too? Thanks!
Geez Carl, what a way to start the weekend…Glad to hear you’re feeling better – I hope your family can dodge the pestilence!
I enjoy crime fiction when I’m in the right mood and you’ve made “Out” sound pretty intriguing, so it’s been added to the list…
“Spaced” is one of the funniest shows ever…what was your favorite episode? – Mine’s from season one – the paintball episode…
Football…I was raised to be an Oiler’s fan, but I switched to the ‘boys when the Oilers left town…
I just finished reading Alexandra Sokoloff’s “The Edge of Seventeen” (from THE DARKER MASK: HEROES FROM THE SHADOWS) and it was very, very good – I’ve added The Harrowing to my list, but it would be fun to win an autographed copy…
Oh Carl, I’m so sorry to hear how you spent the first half of your weekend! You seem in mighty good spirits in spite of it. Hope Mary and Tori manage to stay germ free.
I can’t believe you mentioned Out. I was actually wondering earlier today if her book Grotesque would work for RIP. I’ve never read anything by her, but this book definitely has me intrigued.
And as for football, I actually thought my team (the Dolphins) was going to pleasantly surprise me yesterday. They made it exciting through the last few seconds, before they ultimately blew it. Oh well, all they need is two wins to beat last season…and there’s something to be said for improvement, right? 😉
Debi: I certainly think Grotesque would work just fine, and Out is quite the book, well worth considering.
Miami did make a game of it, no doubt about it. I hope Pennington has a decent year, Tori had to pick him up off the bench when Brady went down (she had him in her league).
Ken: Alexandra sent me several give away copies so whether you win this one or not you can hold out hope for a good chance of winning one sometime during the challenge.
Favorite episodes? That is hard to pick. I loved the paintball one, but I also loved all of the second season. Loved the Empire Strikes Back closing moment of the second to last episode. I really enjoyed the way they wrapped up the series, that last episode was fantastic, especially from an emotional perspective. One of my favorite scenes was when Tim and Daisy were cornered by the gang of kids…don’t want to say anything else because that would spoil the episode. That was great, though! 🙂
Amanda: One thing I haven’t done since last year is update the participants sites on the blog links on the Riping Yarns site. I need to do it even though it is the kind of busy work that I dread.
Scifichick: I’ve certainly had my moments with the site lately. And thanks, I’m very thrilled so many people enjoy this kind of literature.
ewww.. sorry you were sick on Friday…but glad to hear it wasn’t something to linger on ..and on… and on..
gee, are you trying to the world record of how many subjects can you cover in one post? lol..
You are becoming awfully famous for your challenges !! Goodness, now you have authors joining the challenges!!! How Fun is that?!!!
Deslily: thanks, I’m so glad to feel better today…just a little sore from my time spent worshiping the porcelain goddess.
I’m excited that authors, artists, etc. are joining in. One of my goals from the very beginning was to cross-market this kind of thing, get sponsers, etc. It makes it better for me to get prizes donated, certainly, and also makes it more meaningful to promote artists and authors during this challenge when they have a buy in to the thing. I’ve always wanted to make an event of these things. In addition to Alexandra Sokoloff, artists Jennifer Gordon, Anne-Julie Aubry, and Lisa Snellings will be a part of this (Jennifer is also participating in the challenge), and who knows what else might crop up? I’ve got some other Etsy artists who are interested in doing interviews, giving specials, etc. during the challenge. It is all very exciting and I’m thrilled that it at least looks like I’ll have proper time to devote to this over the next two months.
Plus I’ve gotten enough requests to redo the tiny stories contest that I’ll be rolling that out again very soon, plus another Something Sinister photo contest, and more!
How’s that for advertising? Ha! 🙂
Welcome back to the land of the living, Carl. Too sick to read? That is really sick! Glad you are back to normal, footballing and all.
I am struggling with The Snake Agent….. maybe my mind is in too many places. I will carry on, however, and report back.
Take care.
Alexandra Sokoloff taking part in the challenge? How cool is that!
Qugrainne: I really have to be in the right mood to read Liz William’s books. I’ve enjoyed the first two, Snake Agent being my favorite of the two, but I have struggled to get in the mood to read the next two, both of which I have. Don’t feel bad if you have to put it aside until later, sometimes that is the best thing.
Oh Carl! Sorry to hear you were sick. That’s no fun ever…but especially this time of year! I’m still mad at Mike for his fantasy football draft. I don’t know how I will ever forgive him. He took the two players from the team I despise the most…..Romo and Owens. Great for Fantasy, although they only started out so-so. But sucks for me. Now I’m obligated to watch the Cowboys!! On a brighter note, my beloved Bears really stuck it to Manning and Co. last night. Don’t get me wrong, I like Manning. I just happen to love the Bears!!
I have Out on my list of books to read for Bellezza’s challenge too. Can’t wait to get to it. And way cool about Alexandra Sokoloff!! That really rocks!
Stephanie – I’m with you I’m a Peyton Manning fan as well but I really wanted the Bears to win. Carl knows I’m truely bummed that in order for my team to win I had to lose Brady for the season. NOT a fair trade off. I’ve never been able to draft Brady before so I was really excited to have him on my team so needless to say that even though I’m happy to have a win the cost came at too high a cost for me. 🙁
Jeff: All I wanted was Addai to score me some points so I could’ve beat your @$$ into the ground!!! 😉 Okay, sorry…congrats on the win! Brady is a costly loss for all of football, in reality and in fantasy.
Stephanie: Thank you. It was weird because, as far as I knew, I wasn’t around anyone who was sick and then all of a sudden I woke up and felt deathly ill!
I wouldn’t blame him for taking Romo and Owens…we all take players we don’t necessarily like as it is all about the W’s!!! But I’m also a Cowboys fan since my wee days when I first discovered football, so I’m not the one to talk to about that! 🙂
I look forward to hearing other’s opinions of Out. It was an intense read.
Spaced! This was my very favourite show a few years back. I discovered it by accident when Bravo was playing it late on Friday nights, and I got a huge kick out of it. Unfortunately, they stopped broadcasting it before they’d shown the whole series. Blah. The DVD set is on my wishlist now.
Memory: one of the things I was happiest about with this series is that it had a nice ‘end’. Often times short series like this are left so open ended that they are a disappointment. Spaced is definitely not that!
Got sore knees “worshipping” eh wot?! heh
Oh Noooooo not the short stories (no word dupilicated!!! argh! that’s too darn hard !!J).. oh, but I might find a photo or two when that comes along *grin* (I shoulda saved the photo i did for the Thirteenth Tale! darn, darn , darn!)
I’ll have to check out Spaced. My hubby and I both liked Shawn of the Dead and Hot Fuzz! Glad to hear you think it’s good!
Thanks for the link to Estella!
Glad to hear you’re feeling better! Good timing to get the DVDs just then, too.
What a super turnout for the contest! 🙂
We haven’t seen Spaced yet, but now I really, really want to, since we love Hot Fuzz! Thanks, Carl! Now my To-get tv list is growing too! 🙂 Glad to hear you’re feeling better again. I already have a copy of The Harrowing myself to read for this challenge, so I don’t need it, but I certainly think it’s great that Alexandra sent you copies for a giveaway! that’s fantastic. I’d put my name down for the PRice, but she’s promised to send me a copy too when I review The Harrowing (which looks so good and creepy, I’m almost scared to read it). Gotta head back to The Terror which I am really enjoying. This is such a fun challenge!
This seems interesting, I will try and jump on board.
Spaced is such a brilliant show, I’m so glad you got switched on to it Carl. To anyone who is thinking about watching it, I’ll say this, persevere with it. The first couple of shows are a bit wacky and weird and you’ll be thinking “What the…?” but once you get to know the characters and get into it it’s a laugh riot.
The whole matrix homage in a british pub in season two is priceless.
Trivial but True, Simon Pegg is a fellow alumnus of mine!
Come on the Dolphins! (They can’t get any worse!)
I am a new reader to this blog but am already a fan. Thanks for alerting me to Spaced, I hadn’t heard of it but loved Hot Fuzz. It has been added to the Netflix already. Also, got a copy of The Bloody Chamber and am quite excited to read it.
Megan: Thanks, it is great to have you over here. I look forward to your thoughts on both Spaced and Bloody Chamber.
Stuart: You are correct, this is a ‘stick with it’ kind of show, and if you do you are rewarded quite handsomely. Very cool regarding you and Pegg!
Azull: I’m thrilled you are joining the challenge, thanks!
Susan: I think you’ll enjoy it. Have you seen Shaun of the Dead?
Linds: thank you so much. It is a super turnout, isn’t it?
Heather: then you will both definitely like Spaced. And I’m more than happy to mention Estella’s Revenge and am pleased to be a part of this month’s issue.
Deslily: It wasn’t voluntary worshiping, that is for sure!
I’m glad that so many people are reading Out this year. It really is, as you mentioned, an intense read. I’m looking forward to finally reading Grotesque by her for the R.I.P. Challenge.
BTW, I’m assuming you didn’t intend to have large Google logos all over this post?
Glad you’re feeling better Carl.
I love Spaced. Just finished the second season recently and I just loved the teenagers episode. It really is fantastic.
Spaced is fantastic and absolutely perfect ‘flu watching! JB and friends are now incapable of playing paintball without full on military gear and touching death scenes. Confuses the hell out of the other teams. It’s the clubbing episode that’s really stuck with me though: I can’t hear boom boom dance music without doing Mike’s dance…
I’m glad you’re feeling better, Carl! It is indeed a sick day when you don’t feel like reading.
So cool that so many people are joining R.I.P III!
Both my sons are totally hooked on Spaced and tell me they think I’d enjoy it (while acknowledging that their father won’t). Have you heard of a British series from the ’90s called Nightingales? It was rather a cult at the time, and I’m sure Simon Pegg would have grown up watching it. For years we searched uselessly to see if anyone remembered it but it came out on DVD at last, to much jubilation. I think you’d like it, Carl.
I hadn’t seen Snake Agent, so that’s another book to look out for. I really liked Nine Layers of Sky, the use of Russian folklore was very creative, but I know what you mean about having to be in the right mood.
GeraniumCat: I have not heard of Nightingales but I’ll be looking it up for sure. And definitely check out Spaced, your sons are correct.
Nymeth: Thanks! And yes, it is fun seeing the ever increasing amount of participation. My wishlist is bound to get way out of control this year.
Stormfilled: How fun for them. Not sure why I’ve never went paintballing, I’m sure I would enjoy the heck out of it. The clubbing scene is a really fun episode. I really liked Tires, he was a fun character.
Fence: Thank you, I am as well. Glad to hear that you enjoyed Spaced, it really is fun.
Tanabata: Both Grotesque and Real World look like interesting reads, especially after I’ve enjoyed Out so much. Not sure what you mean about the google ads since I don’t see any from my end…I am assuming nobody else does either but am interested in finding out. Did you hit ‘refresh’ just to make sure that the pics didn’t just not load right the first time?
Carl from the pace you read and review I would imagine you are taking sick days every day to get all that hobby work done. You must read and write Superman fast. And you overwhelm me with a variety of books and other art forms to investigate. I’m heading to Netflix next to put Space on my queue.
Have you been to http://www.renderosity.com/ ? A friend of mine turned me onto it this weekend and the first thing I thought was you.
Sorry that you caught that nasty bug! It’s going around over here as well, thankfully i’ve managed to avoid it. (I probably need to let my husband move back in from the shop now don’t i? ^_^) anyhoo, glad to hear you’re feeling slightly better.
I’m plugging away on my first read for the challenge, i guess since i’m blogless i’ll e-mail you my thoughts on the book.
Glad to hear you’re all better. Please enter me into your drawing. The book looks really good. Also, I read and reviewed Nefertiti in June and found it to be a very well written book. Thanks for helping the author promote her work!
BTW, is there something wrong with your site? It seems like your beautiful theme has gone bye bye!
Thanks Carl! I appreciate you posting that for me. 🙂
I love Shaun of the Dead and really like Simon Pegg so I will have to check out Spaced.
Oooh, The Harrowing looks so spooky!
Forget what I said about your blog theme – it’s back in all it’s black glory!
I know all about bugs – I caught one while I was down in Melbourne for the Melbourne Writer’s festival. Was glad to get back to the nice warm tropics!!! Met a French author, Xavier-Marie Bonnot, who had actually met in real life the last executioner of France – the man had taken over 200 people to the guillotine – how creepy was that? Bonnot said the executioner was a funny man with a good sense of humour – not something you normally associate with that job in books 🙂
Sally: Wow, what an interesting person to meet. An executioner would be quite the job. I think you would need to have a sense of humor not to become completely unhinged!
Stephanie: Good!
Sarah: The Harrowing does look spooky, I look forward to finding out if it is as spooky as it looks.
Kailana: You are definitely welcome, I hope the week long event for Michelle gets a great response.
SG Taylor: It might be nice to let him back in the house! 😉 I wish you all the best in staying well. And yes, please do email me your thoughts on any books you read for the challenge, I’d love that!
Jim: Thanks for the link, I’ll definitely check it out. I could take all my available sick time and still not get through all my books, etc! 🙂
Oh no, another great BBC show to get hooked on! I’m constantly amazed by the quality of their programming. *scurries off to her Blockbuster Online queue*
It was such a shame to see Brady injured in the first game, especially after that incredible run last year. I was very, very excited to see my Eagles play so well, though. McNabb put up some monster stats and looked so much better than he did at this time last year. I just hope the opener will set the stage for the rest of the season. If it does, I’ll be very happy.
Sorry to hear you were sick; we’ve had a bout of that at our house as well. So not fun! I’ve been enjoying reading the RIP book reviews so far and am looking forward to seeing what you have to say about The Harrowing.
Pardon: It doesn’t seem like it takes too long after the start of school for sickness to make the rounds! Hope you all are doing better as well.
Ruth: There certainly are a ton of BBC shows that we enjoy. I am glad these are being made available on DVD more consistently. I hope McNabb has a good year as well…except of course when he is playing the Cowboys! 😉
Carl, I’m really glad you’re feeling better. Since DH is a teacher, we’ve both been exposed to the crud from beyond. (He gets exposed to it, and brings it home to me) It makes for interesting times. 🙁
But your review of Spaced has sparked my interest, and I will be checking that out. I figure that DH & I will both enjoy it. I just have to join netflix or something.
ageekgirl: Netflix has been a treat to belong to simply because of the opportunity to get stuff like this and watch it vs. having to go out and buy it.
I don’t have a young child (16) but working with so many adults that do it doesn’t take too much for everyone in the office to be exposed to the same stuff. Gotta love the cold and flu season, especially when it gets a jump and starts during what is still technically summer!
Sorry to hear you were down with flu, Carl. Good to hear you’re well enough to read again! Please enter me into the draw for The Harrowing as well; it sounds suitably creepy!
Thanks Melanie, all is certainly well now!
I did try loading it a couple of times. Today I asked my technical husband what might have caused it. Basically I couldn’t see any of the book covers or images on this post, or the previous one (I didn’t check beyond that) instead they were replaced by Google logos. So he said it was no doubt a Google error somewhere along the line, perhaps a server in Asia (which would explain why no one else had problems). Is your server hosted by Google by any chance? Anyway, I can see the images today so all seems well again. Sorry for any confusion. I swear I wasn’t seeing things!
I know you weren’t seeing things, I sent you an email regarding this, it seems to be an issue with Google Reader which some of you use to get to my site.
Oh darn, I missed the deadline for the giveaway! Anyway, how are you Carl? hopefully much, much better after that weekend bout.
I saw your review over at Estella’s for Out but I’m not reading it just yet as I’m in the middle of the book. It’s so good but intense.
Great, Iliana. I’ll be anxious to hear what you think after you’re done. It is indeed intense!
Intriguing spooky books, well-illustrated reading challenges, AND a love of fantasy football? Hooray! I would love to talk about fantasy football almost as much as I would love to talk about books. I got into fantasy football a year ago- and now I”m running a league of my own. I’m still learning, and would love to talk to others who play. Drop me an email (I think my email addy’s listed for admins in the comments)
Cheers!
– Elizabeth
Oh, my Carl….I so understand what you are talking about. I was so sick Saturday-Sunday, it send me to the hospital. I was throwing up to a point where it became dangerous (I have a heart condition) I also had a headache from HELL.
I am back home after a little torture from the medical staff,of course for my own good =}!!!
I do not know if I will be able to write my little story but I thank-you for all those great reads I just seen, i am putting them on my list of books to read.
I hope you are all well again and that you do not have a recurence of this hellish flu…..EVER!!! Wendy, Ana and Nat kept me going with such nice posts, if you read this post, girls, you’re the best, a big smootch and to you to Carl