flashquake

DAVID SHAPIRO

If you're looking to treat yourself to a new tech toy, I highly recommend the Flip MinoHD Camcorder for $199.99 from Amazon.com.

I've never been big into moving pictures, but I couldn't resist this little device that's half the size of even a compact digital still camera and shoots an hour's worth of high-definition video that looks great online and quite acceptable on a 26-inch TV.

It couldn't be simpler to operate, with the only real controls being the on/off switch and a red button that starts and stops recording. It has a built-in USB connector to your computer for uploading or charging. You can edit with the included software, upload to YouTube in seconds or connect to your TV with a cable that's provided.

It doesn't have the optical zoom lens, strobe light or boom mike, but it's always with you to capture life's little moments or spark your creativity with a fresh view of the world through its mini-viewfinder.

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For a musical lift, check out Playing For Change, an ingenious effort by some young filmmakers to promote world peace through music.

The filmmakers traveled the world recording musicians from different cultures who never met each other performing the same material, then spliced it all together. A rousing version of "Stand By Me" is the signature piece, but there are other standouts like the Indian folk song "Chanda Mama" and a haunting version of "War/No More Trouble."

There are a few well-known musicians like Bono and bluesman Keb Mo on some of the tracks, but mostly it's just folks with a lot of talent.

"Don't Worry," for instance, has singers in France, Tel Aviv, the Netherlands, South Africa and India, accompanied by percussionists in Africa, India and Spain, guitarists in Paris, Nepal, and India, a harmonica player and washboarder in New Orleans and a blow-your-mind sitar player in Chennai.

It's a brilliant idea, beautifully executed — not only for the technical wizardry in pulling it all together, but for the stellar quality of some very uplifting music.

You can see the videos for free at playingforchange.com, but I was glad I picked up the CD/DVD, Songs Around The World (CD + DVD), so I could enjoy it with the high audio and video quality this effort deserves.

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The Rose Metal Press has a worthy new addition to the flash library: The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Writing Flash Fiction: Tips from Editors, Teachers, and Writers in the Field , edited by Tara L. Masih.

There's a good history of flash, but mainly the book brings together entries by a couple of dozen writers, editors and teachers who offer tips, prompts and sample stories. Befitting a book on flash, bite-sized is the rule.

Flash writers will find the book well worth a few hours of their time. I'm just happy to see new attention drawn to a genre I love.

DIDI WOOD

Alone With All That Could Happen: Rethinking Conventional Wisdom about the Craft of Fiction by David Jauss. This is one of the best books on writing I've ever read. Jauss — a writer, editor, and writing instructor — gets beneath the surface of techniques writers use to explore why they work, when they don't work, and how we can employ them effectively. The chapter on Point of View is a revelation. These essays helped me understand some of the things I do instinctively, and some I need to work on more consciously, and I know my writing will be stronger for it.

The Likeness: A Novel by Tana French. I enjoyed this book as much as French's first novel, In the Woods . It reminds me of Donna Tartt's The Secret History, resonating with that part of me that desperately wants to fit in somewhere. Detective Cassie Maddox, whom we first met in In the Woods, is an engaging protagonist, and I hope we'll see more of her soon.

The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Book 1) by Rick Riordan. I confess that I haven't had a chance yet to read this and the subsequent books in Riordan's Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. But my boys — aged 8 and 11 — have read them all, over and over, picking up the first again as soon as they've finished the latest. I've had to pull them off the shelf to get them to read something else. They must be good.