Hello book fiends and dragons! We're already coming up on the end of February, and everyone is anxiously awaiting some spring sunshine in late March or early April. Though I'm not really a sunshine and warm temps gal, since I prefer reading indoors, I'm normally not one to count the days until my seasonal allergies kick in when Spring blooms open up. That said, this year has been particularly cold and snowy and stormy, and even indoor cats like myself are hoping for a reprieve from gray skies and storms. So anyway, here's some alarming/unusual book tidbits and some reviews for ya'all. Keep warm, folks, sunshine's on its way!
I've been against artificial intelligence using stolen works of human writers to re-create so-called original written works for people to lazy or wealthy or ignorant to do it themselves (or hire an actual human writer to do it for them). I'm thrilled, therefore, that the venerable news agency Reuters has won their case against AI stealing copyrighted works.
Thomson
Reuters Wins AI Copyright Suit
In
what has the potential to be a landmark decision, Thomson
Reuters has won the first major AI copyright case in the U.S.
The media and technology holding company filed suit against Ross
Intelligence, a legal AI startup, in 2020, alleging that Ross
reproduced documents from Westlaw, a legal research firm in its
holdings. In a summary judgment, US District Court of Delaware judge
Stephanos Bibas found in Thomson Reuters’ favor, stating that,
“None of Ross’s possible defenses holds water. I reject them
all.” Ouch.
Here’s
what publishing will be paying most attention to: key to the ruling
is Bibas’s determination that Ross Intelligence’s use of
copyrighted material fell outside the protections of the fair
use doctrine.
This doesn’t bode well for other AI companies facing similar suits,
as fair use is a linchpin of their defenses for things like, oh, you
know, using
copyrighted material from 183,000 books to train large language
models. This
is an encouraging result, but don’t pop your bottles just yet. We
are still in the early days of what is certain to be a years-long
process, this ruling will almost certainly be appealed, the law
remains years behind AI’s development, and the current
administration seems pretty friendly to tech’s “move fast and
break things” approach. One to watch, for sure.
I've been a big Yellowstone fan for years, and I'm glad to see that the much-maligned cowboy, Jimmy, has found work post-Yellowstone narrating the latest Hunger Games...go Jimmy!
Hunger Games Meets Yellowstone
I love the idea of Galentine's Day taking over Valentines Day, so to read that a romance novel publisher went all in on this celebration is a bit of good news in an otherwise dark and depressing news cycle.
Image
of the Day: Novel Neighbor's Galentine's Extravaganza
Open Door Romance at The Novel Neighbor
https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJsdgOIle0I6a1hIBx-Tg~k1yJoKXv-hs8x67EWpSlpoMLg-gVdw,
Webster Groves, Mo., teamed up with Berkley Romance for a Galentine's
Extravaganza. More than 550 people turned out for (l.-r.) Kristina
Forest (The Love Lyric), B.K. Borison (First-Time Caller), and Ali
Hazelwood (Deep End) at the Keating Center for Performing Arts, in a
lively conversation about their books and how romance builds
community and brings people together. The store staff annotated
copies of each of their books, which were then raffled off in support
of the bookstore's nonprofit, The Noble Neighbor.
LOL! I love Tina Fey, even though I'm a Boomer myself.
A
Reply All Farce Fit for SNL
“Dear
Boomers,” Tina Fey wrote in the thread at 9:38, with a link to an
instructional YouTube video for senior citizens on how to read,
reply, and forward emails when using a Gmail account.
There
truly was no other way to introduce this story
about a bunch of boomers replying all
to an at first innocuous in-conversation event invite sent by Susan
Morrison, the author of the new
Lorne Michaels biography.
I want to say, “This is why the BCC button was created, people,”
but I admit I’ve always been entertained by the train off the
tracks energy of reply all fiascos and hardly have I met one with so
many actual comedians.
Having been a Kindle owner for years, I think this is total BS. Thanks for making things harder for ebook readers, Amazon. Pfft.
Say
Goodbye to This Kindle Feature
The next time
someone laughs at me for holding onto my Columbo:
The Complete Series
DVD set, I’ll loan them my copy of Just
One More Thing
and point them to this article about Amazon retiring
a feature that allows Kindle users to download purchased books
to their computers. While the feature is mainly useful for users who
can’t transfer straight to their device via WiFi, it’s also
another way to hold onto your purchased copy in case Amazon slides in
and removes or modifies the title, which has happened. Not to get too
Nineteen
Eighty-Four,
copies of which Amazon removed in 2009, but the point The
Verge ‘s
Andrew Liszewski made here isn’t random: “It’s a reminder that
you don’t actually own much of the digital content you consume, and
without the ability to back up copies of ebooks, you could lose them
entirely if they’re banned and removed.” The download option will
be gone starting February 26th, but you can find instructions for how
to access the feature between now and then in the article.
Just another horrifying bit of news coming out of my home state, Iowa. Why such a literate place would allow book banning Nazis to get away with criminalizing Librarians doing their job is beyond me. I'm actually glad that I left Iowa in my early 20s and have never looked back. Washington state, where I've lived for 30+ years, is much smarter about such things, and would never allow a bill like this to pass. Shame on the Hawkeye state! Censorship is fascism!
Iowa
Rushes, Advances Librarian Criminalization Bill
Iowa
has quickly advanced a bill in a show of partisanship that “would
erase protections that public libraries and educational institutions
have related to ‘obscene’ materials.” Learn more about this
bill, including why it was rushed and the harmful impact it would
have, in
this Literary Activism piece.
Wild Country by Anne Bishop is a tale from the world of the "others," a paranormal fantasy series about a world where humans are the invasive pests, and the land itself has lethal creatures that protect it from human destruction and pollution. It's a world also populated by vampires, werewolves, blood prophets and medusa-like female creatures who can kill with just a look. Bishop's prose is strong and stunningly evocative, while her plots move at a measured pace (which is not to say that they lag, but they are slow to start and take their time getting to an HFN ending). Here's the blurb: In this
powerful and exciting fantasy set in the world of the Others series,
humans and the shape-shifting Others will see whether they can live side
by side...without destroying one another.
There are
ghost towns in the world—places where the humans were annihilated in
retaliation for the slaughter of the shape-shifting Others.
One
of those places is Bennett, a town at the northern end of the Elder
Hills—a town surrounded by the wild country. Now efforts are being made
to resettle Bennett as a community where humans and Others live and work
together. A young female police officer has been hired as the deputy to
a Wolfgard sheriff. A deadly type of Other wants to run a human-style
saloon. And a couple with four foster children—one of whom is a blood
prophet—hope to find acceptance.
But as they reopen the stores
and the professional offices and start to make lives for themselves, the
town of Bennett attracts the attention of other humans looking for
profit. And the arrival of the outlaw Blackstone Clan will either unite
Others and humans...or bury them all.
Though I enjoyed learning more about the inhabitants, both Others and Human, of Bennett, I was rather upset that the male protagonist was such a nasty piece of work who never did seem to soften towards his new human female deputy. But I did enjoy the way that Bishop strove to show that people and others can get along and accept one another and live in the same town, if only they keep an open mind and heart. I'd give this book a B, and recommend it to anyone who has read other books in the Others series. Though its a bit too long, its worth it in the end.
Holmes Is Missing by James Patterson and Brian Sitts is the second book in their mystery thriller series, and, as the previous book proved, quite a page-turner that will have you reading into the wee hours. Here's the blurb: In Holmes is Missing, PI Brendan Holmes has committed the perfect crime—he’s made himself disappear.
Success
has come quickly to Holmes, Marple & Poe Investigations. The New
York City agency led by three detectives—Brendan Holmes, “the brain,”
Margaret Marple, “the eyes,” and Auguste Poe, the “muscle”—with famous
names and mysterious pasts is one major case away from cementing its
professional reputation.
But as a series of child abductions
tests the PIs’ legendary skills, the cerebral Holmes’s absence leaves a
gaping hole in the agency roster.
Only by closing ranks and solving the mystery within can they recover all that’s been lost.
My first complaint about these three fascinating characters (who all take after their ancestor namesakes) is that Poe is a philandering, oversexed, car-afficionado who comes off as something of a wealthy creep, whereas his ancestor, EA Poe, was more of a lovelorn sadsack when it came to the adoration of the opposite sex. It's also bothersome, and somewhat misogynistic, that Marple, being the only woman, has to mother the male characters and their bad habits and fragile egos while still maintaining the firm's reputation by working on and solving their impossible cases. It's the old dicotomy set up by religion, of women being seen as both angels and whores, because men can't handle reality or life without someone more mature than themselves getting sh*t done....and it's usually a woman or women who are tasked with "doing it all" and making businesses and society run, often to their exhaustion and detriment to their health. Too bad Patterson and his co-author weren't able to move beyond this tired trope and have Holmes and Poe actually do their fair share of the work of their agency themselves. And, inevitably, Marple, because she's a woman, has to be paired off with either Holmes or Poe, because women can't live without having a sexual relationship, even an inappropriate one with a colleague, right? Sigh...so disappointing that a woman as smart as Marple would fall for someone as damaged and drug addicted as Holmes. She has been portrayed, up to this point, as being super smart and resourceful, but suddenly she lusts after this idiot who is self destructive and often cruel? Why? Ugh. I'd give this book a B, primarily for the excellent prose and swift plot, and I'd recommend it to anyone who likes thrillers and the classic mystery novels of Doyle and Poe and Christie.
The Bones Beneath My Skin by TJ Klune is a bizarre science fiction/adventure/thriller that defies categorization. I've read all of Klunes other novels, which were found-family cozies and always left me with a tear in my eye, but this particular book is not related to them at all, and is a standalone that even the author describes in his afterword as "weird." Here's the blurb: A spine-tingling standalone novel by TJ Klune―a supernatural road-trip thriller featuring
an extraordinary young girl and her two unlikely protectors on the run
from cultists and the government.
There's nothing more human than a broken heart.
In
the spring of 1995, Nate Cartwright has lost everything: his parents
are dead, his only brother wants nothing to do with him, and he's been
fired from his job as a journalist in Washington, DC.
With
nothing left to lose, he returns to his family's summer cabin outside
the small mountain town of Roseland, Oregon, to try and find some sense
of direction. The cabin should be empty. It's not.
Inside is a
man named Alex. And with him is an extraordinary ten-year-old girl who
calls herself Artemis Darth Vader. Artemis, who isn't exactly as she
appears.
Soon it becomes clear that Nate must make a choice: let
himself drown in the memories of his past, or fight for a future he
never thought possible. Because the girl is special. And forces are
descending upon them who want nothing more than to control her.
This book reminded me of a Gay/Queer version of an X-Files episode from the 90s. Not to get too woo-woo, but Artemis is an alien who doesn't actually have flesh and blood (or emotions) in her normal state, but she can take over a human body and use them to experience and learn about the human world. Unfortunately, the government gets ahold of her and tortures her in the bodies of two different people for decades, until one of her guards, Alex, falls in love with her and realizes that what is being done to her is wrong (and that they will kill her out of fear), so he escapes with her in the body of a child and the two go on a wild adventure, meeting Nate and bringing him into their found family along the way. As is usual of Klune's novels, there are moments of laughter and tears and a lot of poignancy to their experiences and escapes, but beneath all of that is the yearning love story of Alex and Nate, and how their relationship with Art heals their bodies and minds. the ending is abrupt as it fast-forwards in time, but the actual ending about the invasion of the body-snatchers is wobbly and off-center at best, and doesn't answer a lot of questions brought up in the novel about the nature of the aliens and why they'd want to colonize humanity in the first place...and how they'd keep the military from getting involved in a destructive capacity, again. I'd give this odd work a B-, and recommend it to those looking for works with gay male love stories and bizarre X-Files storylines.
Unlikely Story by Ali Rosen is a funny romance novel that is somehow unsatisfying in the end. Here's the blurb: From the author of Recipe for Second Chances
comes a swoonworthy romance bursting with wit about a therapist who
falls for the wrong man…but perhaps the right one was hiding in the
margins all along.
As a relationship therapist, Nora
helps patients explore their feelings honestly. But she’s hiding an
embarrassing relationship secret of her own: she’s in love with someone
she’s never even met.
J edits the advice column
Nora’s been writing anonymously for the last seven years. He’s in
London, she’s in New York, and they communicate solely through shared
files. When he confides that his girlfriend’s out of the picture, and
her boss asks her to come to London, Nora takes both as a sign.
But
that’s not the only thing on her mind. A client’s ex-boyfriend just
moved into her co-op, directly beneath her. Eli blames Nora for his
breakup and seems determined to make her life miserable, gleefully
planning a noisy renovation.
Yet despite all his
bluster, Nora eventually starts to see the softness behind Eli’s
brusque, charming exterior…and after a slipup reveals a startling
secret, Nora wonders whether someone can be two things at once.
Anyone who has ever read a romantic comedy novel knows where this plane will land, and I was therefore unsurprised that J and Eli were the same guy...in fact, I figured that out after the second chapter of the book. There was little explanation for why Eli, who comes off as a real toady jerk, is so kind and nice as J, the copyeditor who never has an unkind word for his favorite columnist, Nora. It never makes sense how he can be a shitheel in real life and a totally different person over text-email. I also didn't see how Nora could be so attracted to him when he was constantly doing things to needle and irritate her, or just make her angry. That kind of person, especially that type of guy, isn't sexy. I don't care how many muscles he has, if he's a rampaging jerkface, he is not boyfriend or bedmate material. This book assumes all women are stupid and helpless to control their emotions or sexuality around guys who are very handsome and have muscular frames. Since Nora's a therapist about relationships, she would know better than to fall for Eli, and also better than to forgive him immediately after finding out that he's J, and has been hiding his true identity from her. I would not forgive someone who did that to me, nor would I fall into his arms and swoon with lust. Insert eye roll here. I really dislike that romance novels tend to turn women into complete idiots unable to control their libidos or yearnings for love. So I'd give this ebook a C+ and only recommend it to those who don't mind outdated and sexist tropes.
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