Why I support a public option for healthcare

Please, please bring on a public option for heathcare. Cover the gaps due to employment change, don't make people chose between avoiding poverty and illness, and stop denying coverage to people who need it.

read more... or simply click in support of health reform:

Dracula by Bram Stoker

I figured I didn't need to read Dracula since I'd seen every derivative B-rated horror movie out there with each stereotypically horrific blood-sucking vampire laid out in terrible ghastly pallor to entertain me. And I figured wrong. I recently re-read Salem's Lot by Stephen King and this time I bothered with the foreword; King's paean to Stoker was persuasive so when I finished, I picked up the classic tome.

Dracula begins slowly with the doings and social life of two young English girls; this was somewhat like an Austen novel, with all he conspiring about suitors and marriage. I was somewhat put off as my tastes in literature don't run that way, but I soldiered on. (Note to self: my next novel had better break this slow-start habit.) The story gradually became more interesting... and much to my surprise, by the climax the original characters stood proud and tall and had shouldered aside the insipid stereotypes that had been made of them; Mina and Lucy become more than simpering ankle-twisters, fleeing the nosferatu (although Lucy does in fact hurt her feet rescuing Mina). Renfield becomes a more sensitive and desperate soul, dealing with his own mental plight and eventually defending against evil - he transcends the grotesque side show that he could become, and was represented as, in other derivative works. Jonathan, Arthur, Quincey and John are not merely a musketeerish re-hash of old heroic boy bands, but instead have interesting dynamics going on between them. And Van Helsing is flawed and desperate and good-hearted and mysterious, not the inhumanly effective vampire-slayer portrayed in the common theatre.

And you twilight readers: please, get yourself a copy of Dracula. Please.

As a measure of the solid character work, check out this image of Sir Henry Irving. This man was the actor upon whom Stoker based his character Dracula - not that Irving was a blood-sucker, but just that Stoker used the mannerisms and affect as the basis of his title character. He really does look like he could be Dracula in life, doesn't he?

If you're looking for a good story, Dracula fits the bill. But even more, re-reading the original story banishes the weak stereotypical characters from the mind and lets Stoker's willful and red-blooded souls take their place. Willingly.

Indiscretions of Archie by PG Wodehouse

The man of the house is very much a Wodehouse fan but I've resisted reading his books. I think it was the particular shade of obnoxious construction-cone orange glaring at me from my barrister bookshelves that put me off.

I finally assented to start to read Indiscretions of Archie when nothing else was quick to hand and I had some spare time. I suppose I was also influenced by knowing and liking Stephen Fry so well in his portrayal of Jeeves in the BBC series Jeeves and Wooster. It took me a bit to like the main chap of the tome, Archie, but after a bit I started enjoying his serendipitous rending of his father-in-law's carefully groomed world and Archie's proclivity for turning an unlucky happenstance into good fortune through no effort of his own. My own life tends to have snowballing misfortunes of a minor nature; a burnt-out lightbulb cannot be replaced easily but must snap off in the socket, requiring me to throw the breakers, get a flashlight to see by, and pliers to get the annoying lightbulb collar out. And then it turns out I have no bulbs of the right size to replace it with anyway. If Archie had a burnt lightbulb to deal with, I think it would probably come out easily then reveal the secret hiding place of a complete set of Spanish dubloons.

Seabiscut by Laura Hillenbrand

Seabiscuit by Laura Hillenbrand was the prize for my Giveaway Carnival event, and the lucky recipient agreed to provide her review to be posted alongside my own here. Thanks to Dixie of A few of my favorite things blog for extending and strengthening an act of generosity into becoming an act of creativity!

For more info on this amazing animal, please also see the wikipedia entry on Seabiscuit.

Eva's review: Seabiscuit: An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand seemed at first a rather overblown title to me for a book about an animal, no matter how interesting. But Seabiscuit was a really amazing animal, and worthy of such a dedicated biographer as Laura Hillenbrand - I was won over to his Amazing-ness by the end of the book. The story of Seabiscut's success is fairly well known, however the adversity that beset the jockey and horse seems to be known by very few. Hillenbrand surfaces the backstory and the reader realizes how truly amazing the athleticism of horse and rider were by understanding how difficult their recoveries from injury were. Also, Hillenbrand includes information about all the various persons involved with Seabiscuit, and in doing so brings an understanding to the reader as to how much effort is involved in racing a top-of-the-line racehorse. Suddenly, those victory purses don't seem so outrageous when looked at on a per-hour investment basis for that time at least. 4/5

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Dixie's review: Take a car salesman and a horse whisperer, and add a down and out jockey together. Toss in a knobby-kneed, cantankerous thoroughbred and you have the tale of Seabiscuit: An American Legend. Written by Laura Hillenbrand this book chronicles the history of the 1930's and 40's Horse Racing circuit in a wonderfully colorful, richly described setting. There are 3 main characters we come to know. First there is owner Charles Howard, a larger than life character with PT Barnum appeal. Then there is Tom Smith, the quiet, reclusive trainer who had an almost mystical way with horses. Next comes jockey Red Pollard. A blind in one eye rider who had never achieved the greatness that he sought, and always seemed to be just one step away from catching the brass ring or a toe-tag. Then there is the horse. Most of the Horse racing establishment had long written off this unlikely thoroughbred of ever achieving anything remotely akin to greatness. When trainer Tom Smith urges his boss Charles Howard to buy Seabiscuit for a song, and then hired Pollard to ride him, thus began an unlikely alliance that would evolve into racing legend. We also learn of the distasteful side of the life of a jockey, who often it seemed was subjected to such miserable conditions that one wonders why anyone in their right mind would choose this career. From virtually starving themselves to maintain their weight, to riding while ill and injured, and even living in cold, drafty stables an often nomadic existence. This is a wonderful tale of an underdog's triumphant rise to glory and after reading this you come to realize that legends truly aren't born-indeed they are made, and if not for these three men who believed in him, Seabiscuit most likely would have remained just another obscure "also-ran". 3.5/5