Rampant Biblioholism

Childhood Revisited

2011-10-11T11:42:00.006-05:00

To celebrate my day off of work yesterday, I was poking around in a store that sells dvds.

I carefully went through the whole movie section, not really looking for something in particular, just looking. And then, there in the "S" section, I saw it: a copy of The Empire Strikes Back in the special limited edition.

I grabbed it off the shelf and went to the front immediately to pay, as if someone would realize what I had in my hand and offer to fight me for it.

As the guy at the counter rang up my sale, he looked twice at the dvd box, then looked up and said, "You know this is the special edition, right? The one with..."

"The one with my childhood on it?" I interrupted. "Yes, yes I do."

It's true, you know. As big of a geek as I am, and as much as I love Star Wars (and I was 11 when the original movie came out, so you can just imagine how much I love it), this is the first copy of any Star Wars movie that I own.

I didn't want something prettied-up, tweaked and "improved." I wanted the movie that I sat through far too many times, that I could quote dialog from, that was the basis for untold games and flights of imagination. I wanted my childhood, and no amount of all-new explosions or digital manipulation or added scenes meant a hill of beans to me, because none of that belonged to (or in) the movie that was a part of me.

Would I prefer a shiny HD Blu-ray version? Certainly. And maybe someday I'll get it, sans ham-handed alterations. Until then, I'll be popping up some popcorn, making a Suicide soda (keeping an eye out for swooping bats--thanks, Rialto Theater) and spending some quality-time with an old friend.

September Reads

2011-09-30T17:26:00.004-05:00

September coincided with "buy new books for the library" month, and I went on an absolute reading binge: fiction, non-fiction, juvenile, YA--whatever sounded good I took a gander at, to the tune of 39 books all told, leaving me at an even 230 books for the year so far. There's some really good stuff here, Like Lansdale's All the Dust, Thrown to the Sky and Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games trilogy. I've also decided that Susan Casey is edging into Mary Roach territory for me--must-reads. Oh, and those of you with a penchant for the odd and unsettling get your orders in now for Kafkaesque. So without further adieu, the list:

Atwood, Margaret Cat's Eye

A semi-famous artist returns to her hometown for a retrospective and remembers her childhood as tormented and tormenter and how it influenced her art. Atwood is awesome, and I love the interplay between the descriptions of the paintings (which we can interpret just fine, being privy to the author's thoughts, memories, and actions) and the interpretations hung on the paintings by others, who, of course, see what they want to see.

Barnhill, Kelly The Mostly True Story of Jack

Jack is ignored by everybody: teachers, strangers, family. He's so ignored he's practically invisible. But when his parents split up, he's sent to live with his aunt and uncle, and suddenly people are paying attention to him: his aunt and uncle actually talk to him, kids want to be his friend, and he even gets beaten up by a bully. There are strange goings-on in this town, and Jack is right in the middle of it. Well-written, engaging, and Jack is an awesome character (as is Wendy).

Beauman, Ned Boxer Beetle

What do you get when you combine a closeted “gentleman entomologist” with a passion for eugenics & a man-crush on Hitler, a violent alcoholic boxer (also gay) who's almost completely controlled by his id, a group of effete, squabbling fascists, a vicious gangster, & a beetle built to be nigh-invulnerable? One of the oddest books I've ever read. It's funny (in some places hilarious) and horrifying all at once in that peculiar British humor tradition where truly awful things happen to people, but it's funny instead of sad because they're awful people.

Casey, Susan The Wave: In Pursuit of the Rogues, Freaks, and Giants of the Ocean

Casey's account of huge waves, their unpredictability, their destructive power, and the quest to surf a 100-foot wave is absolutely unputdownable. She has a remarkable way of making everything fascinating. Awesome.

Cast, P.C. & Kristin Cast House of Night 01: Marked

Vampyres have always existed. They are not created by being bitten, they simply are, and as teens they are “marked,” physically and societally and separated to begin their education, which not all of them survive. Zoey Redbird is not just marked, but chosen by Nyx, the Goddess of Night. Marked is the story of Zoey's being chosen and of her life adjusting to her new self in a new school. Who knew vampire schools had Heathers?

Cast, P.C. & Kristin Cast House of Night 02: Betrayed

Beginning immediately after book 01, Zoey is still trying to organize the Dark Daughters, avoid her human ex-boyfriend who may or may not be imprinted, and pining for her almost-boyfriend Eric, who's away at a contest. Then human boys start disappearing and are found dead drained of blood, causing suspicion to fall on the vampires in general & Zoey in particular, as she knew them. In the middle of all this, a teacher seemingly hits on her, a friend is sick, her grandmother is in danger, and something is off with her mentor, the High Priestess Neferet. There's a lot of story packed into this relatively small book.

Cast, P.C. & Kristin Cast House of Night 03: Chosen

Zoey is trying to do the right thing, but it all turns out wrong. By keeping secrets to protect her friends, she ends up turning the away from her just when she needs them most. She also dithers on deciding between the boys who like her, makes some truly horrible choices, and ends up all alone. Although you often want to pinch her little head right off, Zoey is so fundamentally likeable that you end up rooting for her, even when she's being bone stupid. Kudos to the Casts for a truly great character.

Cast, P.C. & Kristin Cast House of Night 04: Untamed

Zoey's trying to win her friends back because of a vision of her death that leads to a horrible human/vampire war. She makes progress, but things still go all to hell by the end of this book. Again, Zoey is awesome, and for such a dark book, I laughed out loud more than once. Excellent.

Cast, P.C. & Kristin Cast House of Night 05: Hunted

Living in the tunnels with the red fledgelings, Zoey and her friends try to deal with Neferet and Kalona. Aphrodite is convinced that Stevie Ray is hiding something about the red fledgelings. Erik is being a possessive butthead again, and Stark has reawakened as a red fledgeling and is working with Neferet and Kalona, who are pretending to be the incarnation of Nyx and Erebus. Lots of action and intrigue, leading to a climactic showdown with the evil Neferet and her consort Kalona.

Cast, P.C. & Kristin Cast House of Night 06: Tempted

Kalona and Neferet have been temporarily banished, but Kalona is still connected to Zoey in her dreams. Heath is back, re-Imprinted stronger than ever, Erik's still around, and now there's Stark, the red fledgeling archer who's so connected to Zoey he can sense her emotions. Stevie Ray is definitely hiding something about the red fledgelings, and now everyone except Stevie Ray has to go to Italy to attend the Vampyre Council with Neferet & Kalona, where something so terrible happens that it literally shatters Zoey's soul.

Cast, P.C. & Kristin Cast House of Night 07: Burned

Stevie Ray has saved an injured Raven Mocker and can't tell anyone. Zoey and the pieces of her shattered soul are in the Otherworld with Heath. Stark undertakes a deadly journey to try to help Zoey mend herself & also to protect her from Kalona, who Neferet Has sent to kill Zoey. Lots of intrigue and lots of hard choices as everyone (except Neferet) tries to make the right choices.

Cast, P.C. & Kristin Cast House of Night 08: Awakened

Zoey is back together, Heath has moved on in the Otherworld, and Zoey & Stark are now together. Stevie Ray has grown close to Rephaim, but still keeps him a secret from her friends. Neferet has fooled the council into thinking she was under Kalona's sway, but now she's better, so she returns to Tulsa where her first act is unspeakably evil. Zoey and her friends return to try to take back their home, but Neferet is able to twist the homecoming, leaving Zoey & friends to depart the school to make their own way in the tunnels. Again, excellent characters, and no matter how tragic, you'll still laugh out loud more than once.

Collins, Suzanne The Hunger Games

Oh. My. Dog. What am I paying you people for if it's not to insist that I read books this good? All the hype and popularity is well-deserved in this gritty tale of institutionalized cruelty and the teens forced to fight each other for everyone's amusement. You will never forget Katniss Everdeen.

Collins, Suzanne Catching Fire

Katniss has unwittingly become a symbol of rebellion, and her punishment is a return to the Hunger Games along with a slate of other former winners, including Peeta. Dark, depressing, and cruel to be sure, but there are lessons of compassion and honor as well. Katniss, taught from a very early age to make hard decisions, is torn between what she wants and what she has to do to make that happen. Incredible characters and an awesome story.

Collins, Suzanne Mockingjay

Now there's a full-scale rebellion and the rebels want Katniss to be their symbol and rallying point. Peeta is in the hands of the government, calling for Katniss to stand down. Gale's hatred for what the Capitol has done to his people leads him to create ever crueler weapons, and Katniss is slowly realizing that people who resort to inhuman acts to push their agenda are all alike, no matter what their politics.

Cook, Kevin Titanic Thompson: The Man Who Bet on Everything

Titanic Thompson was not just “Runyonesque”--he's the guy Sky Masterson was based on. His life was full of card sharps, hustlers, and gangsters, and it's utterly fascinating.

Crowell, Rodney Chinaberry Sidewalks

Country singer/songwriter Crowell's book is less an autobiography than a study of his parent's turbulent and sometimes violent realtionship and the effect said relationship had on them and on him. There's some terrific detail, and by the end you're encouraged to come to the same peace with these fierce, proud, volatile folks as Crowell did.

Datlow, Ellen Blood and Other Cravings

Datlow's new anthology involves vampires, but makes the point that not all vampires feed on blood. A Datlow anthology is always first rate, and this is no exception. Favorites include "baskerville's Midgets" by Reggie Oliver, "Sweet Sorrow" by Barbara Roden and Carol Emshwiller's "Mrs. Jones."

Feynman, Richard Surely Your Joking, Mr. Feynman!

Less an autobiography than a manic guy telling stories at a party, Feynman is alternately completely, hilariously fascinating and something of a jerk. It's great to experience his personality first-hand, as it were, but there's not enough contextual detail to really make it stick.

Gangi, Tony Carny Sideshows

Always fascinated with sideshows, Gangi decides to attend the classes offered by the Coney Island sideshow to learn such skills as how to drive a nail your nose, how to lay on a bed of nails, and how to eat fire. Interspersed with his account of learning his new skills (and believe me, no 12-year old boy could be giddier than Gangi about sticking a nail up his nose) are interviews with sideshow folk and a bit of the history of the sideshow, its acts, and its performers.

Kessel, John and James Patrick Kelly Kafkaesque

Co-editors Kessel & James Patrick Kelly have put together a winner: an homage to a very singular writer that's more than one slick pastiche after another. The stories gathered here do manage to evoke Kafka, whether directly by featuring him as a character or riffing on a particular story or indirectly by capturing that mood that is distinctly Kafkaesque. Many favorite stories, including “The Jackdaw's Last Case” by Paul di Fillipo, “Report to the Men's Club” by Carol Emshwiller, & “Bright Morning” by Jeffrey Ford. Highly recommended.

Keyes, Ralph Euphemania

Keyes looks at our fascination with euphemism through the ages and argue that the kinds of things that we create euphemisms for can tell a lot about the society that created them.

Lansdale, Joe R. All the Earth, Thrown to the Sky

The Dust Bowl of Oklahoma in the 30s is no place to be. After Jack's mother dies and his father hangs himself, Jack hooks up with Jane & Tony, two other abandoned kids and tries to make to to East Texas to find Jane & Tony's relatives. It's a fast-moving story, with gangsters, crooked lawmen, kind widow-ladies, and carny-folk, but all of that pales once you meet Jane: smart, stubborn, clear-headed, good-hearted, and as gifted a liar as ever came down the pike. It's Jack's story, but just like him, once Jane comes along you'd follow her anywhere.

Lansdale, Joe R. Flaming Zeppelins

Two of Lansdale's alt-history mash-ups together in one package. Book one, "Zeppelin's West," tells the tale of Wild Bill Hickock, Annie Oakley, Sitting Bull, & the living head of Buffalo Bill Cody (it's kept alive in a jar), the Wild West show, a zeppelin crash, Frankenstein's monster, Captain Nemo, & the wildest version of the Island of Dr. Moreau you're ever likely to see. Book two, "Flaming London," involves Ned the Seal (a talking seal we met in the previous adventure), Mark Twain, Jules Verne, the Flying Dutchman, invaders from Mars, and H.G. Wells himself. Funny, fast-moving, & profane, these books are some of the most enjoyable time I've spent reading.

Lansdale, Joe R. Hyenas

A Hap & Leonard novella along with a short story featuring a teen-age Hap Collins. The novella is pure Hap & Leonard—Leonard's been in a bar fight (the other guys started it) and beaten 3 men bloody (one's had his head pushed through the men's room wall and is still dangling there). Nobody presses charges, but one of the guys tries to hire Leonard to scare his little brother (who's fallen in with a bunch of bank robbers) straight. Hap & Leonard feel sorry for the guy and decide to try, but of course, everything goes wrong in true Hap & Leonard fashion. I really love those guys.

Lansdale, Joe R. Unchained and Unhinged

A collection of Lansdale's columns for Subterranean & some short stories. As fun as reading a Lansdale story is, reading his non-fiction is even moreso. His voice is unmistakeable, a good ol' East Texas drawl that was made for telling stories. You might not agree with what he has to say, but it sure is fun to hear him say it.

Maney, Mabel Kiss the Girls and Make Them Spy

Maney, author of some parodies featuring Nancy Clue and the Hardly Boys, takes on James Bond. In this light-hearted romp, James Bond is a drunken cad who's been institutionalized for enforced “rest.” When the Queen wants to give him a medal, Bond's masters enlist the aid of his lesbian twin sister Jane to keep the Queen (and everyone else) from finding out Bond's not well. Jane's not much like her famous brother, except, of course, for her fondness for young women, and her adventures as a reluctant spy are quite funny.

McMann, Lisa The Unwanteds

Quill's society is very rigid: the Wanteds are strong and smart & hold privileged positions, the Necessaries are exactly that—necessary for the labor to keep the Wanteds in power, and the Unwanteds, who are all creative. Every year comes the Purge, where all Unwanteds are put to death. Aaron is a Wanted; his twin Alex is Unwanted. When Alex is Purged, he discovers the secret: all the Unwanteds have been saved by a powerful mage, who has created a perfect land for them to fulfill their creativity and grow. Naturally, conflict ensues. Some interesting stuff here, but a bit too one-sided and didactic for me.

Perez-Reverte, Arturo The King's Gold

Upon his return from Flanders, Captain Alatriste and Inigo are hired to steal some gold. The gold technically belongs to the King, but it is undeclared and being smuggled into the country. Of course, this job runs them afoul of old enemies, and of course, things don't go quite according to plan. It has been fun watching Inigo grow up, but I sincerely hope we will soon actually get to see some of the adventures he refers to in his reports. The books are quick, but I'm beginning to want more.

Roberson, Chris Iron Jaw and Hummingbird

Set in Roberson's Celestial Empire, a world where China never turned inward and so went on to be one of the Earth's dominant empires, Iron Jaw & Hummingbird is the tale of two young people, one a child of the streets, one a child of privilege, who together form a rebel army to topple the governor of Mars. It's got action and adventure aplenty, but what really shines for me is the detail of Roberson's world.

Rothfuss, Patrick The Wise Man's Fear

As irritating as the wait for book two was (and I had it a lot lighter than most), it really was worth the wait: huge and detailed with great description and fabulous characters that truly come alive. Talented and hot-headed, the young Kvothe is cunning, clever, naive, and occasionally bone stupid. We get a front row seat on how both his talents and his flaws came together to create a legend. Unbelievably awesome.

Selznick, Brian Wonderstruck

The stories of Ben, a young boy in Minnesota in 1977 (told in words) and Rose, a young girl in New Jersey in 1927 (told in pictures) converge in unexpected ways involving New York City, a bookstore, The Museum of Natural History, and a book called Wonderstruck. Selznick is a wonderful storyteller no matter what medium he's using, and he can make you feel every ounce of hurt or terror or wonder that his characters are experiencing.

Stiefvater, Maggie Forever

Book 3 in Stiefvater's werewolf trilogy brings a nice conclusion. It's not up to book one, but it's better than book two.

Tremlett, Giles Ghosts of Spain: Travels Through Spain & Its Silent Past

British journalist Tremlett, a long-time resident of Spain, looks through Spanish history for clues to understand the Spanish people and why they think and act the way they do. It's a very general overview, and shifts between history and current times, but it's an interesting intro and piques the interest for more detailed explorations.

Vordak the Incomprehensible Rule the School

Since no one used his first book to step up and rule the world, Vordak has unretired to get rid of Commander Virtue once and for all. Unfortunately, a slight problem has left him 12 years old and in middle school. Hilarious misadventures just begging to be read aloud.

Walker, Brian Doonesbury and the Art of G.B. Trudeau

A lovely retrospective and history of Doonsebury, with some fun biography on Trudeau and some surprising insight on how the comic strip works.

Willingham, Bill Down the Mysterly River

Max the Wolf, intrepid Boy Scout and Bot Detective, comes to with only hazy memories of how he might have gotten to the woods he finds himself in. While trying to figure out what might have happened, he meets a talking badger named Banderbrock. They are both attacked by someone who seems to know who they are and who holds a glowing blue sword that can do amazing things. They escape and along the way meet up with an ugly and irritable yellow tomcat who calls himself MacTavish and a not-too-bright but goodhearted bear named Walden, who fancies himself a sheriff. Still pursued by the Blue Cutters, Max & his gang make their way towards the Wizard Swift to try and solve the mystery of how they all got there. Lots of fun, a ton of humor, and a genuine sweet, gooey heart in Walden the Bear.

Wilson, Edward O. Kingdom of Ants: Jose Celestino Mutis and the Dawn of Natural History in the New World

A small monograph of Jose Celestino Mutis and his contributions to the study of ants in Central & South America and how that pioneering study shaped how natural history was studied.

Yancey, Rick The Monstrumologist

The Mostrumologist purports to be the journals of Will Henry, born in the late 1800s, orphaned, and taken in by his father's employer, a monstrumologist (one who studies monsters). This well-writen story is dark and disturbing not just for the gory stuff (and there's plenty of gory stuff), but for the character of the monstrumologist himself, a man so self-absorbed he seems incapable of noticing that 12-year old Will is actually a person. The doctor is, indeed monstrous (although not the most monstrous thing you'll run into here), but Yancey manages to make him an object of humor and of pity, too. Well done!

Gianna's Challenge: the Answers

2011-09-06T19:28:00.002-05:00

We're edging up on a week, and no one has spotted the cowbird hiding in the nest. For those of you playing at home, I will now match the descriptions with their titles:

1. In an alternate, steampunk Victorian England, an opium-addicted special agent must help his assistant and the Queen's chief investigator to find a killer.
The Affinity Bridge by George Mann

2. A secret service agent in love with a married woman gets involved with a covert baseball game between the Secret Service and the CIA, and falls into disfavor when he fails to stop the White House chef from serving Spam to the President and an honored guest.
Night of the Avenging Blowfish: A Novel of Covert Operations, Love, and Luncheon Meat by John Welter

3. Raleigh Hayes, an upstanding citizen of Thermopylae, N.C., and Mingo Sheffield, his needy next-door neighbor are on a two-week odyssey. They encounter a bizarre cast of characters during their adventures, including Raleigh's criminal half-brother Gates, his prison buddy Weeper Berg, and aging jazzman Toutant Kingstree. Their quest is to recapture Hayes's ailing father, who has escaped from the hospital with a young black woman in a recently-purchased Cadillac convertible, and who has left Raleigh a strange set of tasks to fulfill before a planned rendezvous in New Orleans.
Handling Sin by Michael Malone

4. Frank has built an elaborate device in a giant clock wherein a different death awaits the wasp put into it behind each number. He believes the death 'chosen' by the wasp predicts something about the future. He kills other animals as well, and uses their bodies to "protect" his territory. He occupies himself with his rituals and an array of weapons to control the island and occasionally gets drunk with his dwarf friend Jamie in the local pub. Frank's older brother Eric is in an insane asylum. He escapes and rings Frank from phone boxes informing him he is coming to visit.
The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks

5. A scientist in a surrealist society kidnaps children to steal their dreams, hoping that they slow his aging process. When his little brother is kidnapped, a strongman joins forces with a young girl to rescue the children.
City of Lost Children directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet & Marc Caro

6. A pilot for a cosmetics company crashes the company plane while having sex. This event causes him to be blacklisted from flying in the United States, so he accepts a lucrative offer from a doctor-missionary on a remote Micronesian island to transport cargo to and from the island and Japan. He moves to the island, along with a male Filipino transvestite navigator and a talking fruit bat.
Island of the Sequined Love Nun by Christopher Moore

7. When their traveling circus begins to fail, a couple devise an idea to breed their own freak show, using various drugs and radioactive material to alter the genes of their children. The results are a boy with flippers for hands and feet; Siamese twins; a hunchbacked albino dwarf; and the normal-looking baby of the family who has telekinetic powers.
Geek Love by Katherine Dunn

8. Doug Hoover never liked work and he changed jobs and women frequently. Dissatisfied with his current life, he hooks up with Sue Jean and takes off. When he comes to the end of his journey, a wonderful town where everything costs a nickel, he realizes he has died and must decide whether or not to go back in another form. Some of the people he discusses this with are Billy the Kid, the Red Baron, and assorted Wild West and World War I aces. The heaven they are in has cars, dogs, cats, ribs, saloons, and sex.
The Hereafter Gang by Neal Barrett, Jr.

9. Since the death of his young daughter, a successful children's book author has begun seeing the fantastical creatures from his book come to life. He's also being stalked by a lunatic who claims to be his biggest fan.
Zod Wallop by William Browning Spencer

10. The president agrees to appear in a series of dangerous illusions for a magician. All seems well, but when the president dies mysteriously hours later, the magician has to flee the country. Pursued by hapless of FBI agents, he falls in love with a beautiful blind woman and confronts an old nemesis bent on destroying him.
Carter Beats the Devil by Glen David Gold

11. Recovering from the death of his wife, Jack, an engineer living in Austin, Texas, meets and falls in love with Lily, a perfect beauty except, perhaps, for her wings and clawed bird-feet. Lily is the goddess of the moon and can meet Jack only when the moon is full, and then only if he awaits her outside, stark naked. When this requirement leads to his being arrested for indecent exposure, a motley crew of friends comes to his aid.
Lunatics by Brad Denton

12. In the hospital recuperating from an attack by a rabid squirrel, Hap wonders why his best friend hasn't been by to visit. Turns out that Leonard, upset by his boyfriend leaving him, goes to the biker bar and beats Raul's new man up.When the biker turns up dead later that night, it doesn't take long to guess who the primary suspect is--especially with Leonard nowhere to be found. After Hap checks himself out of the hospital and finds Leonard hiding in his bed, they stumble onto a conspiracy involving gaybasher pornography and Leonard's ready to exact some vigilante justice.
Bad Chili by Joe R. Lansdale

13. A split-brained data processor is summoned by a deranged scientist and his granddaughter and told that the scientist has devised a perfect secret code by operating on the brains of selected computer workers. Alternating between these encounters with the scientist, the scientist's granddaughter, Lauren Bacall, Bob Dylan, and various thugs, librarians, subterranean monsters and bully-boys bent on finding out what he knows, there is the story of the ancient walled town at the end of the world.
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami

14. In a near-future city, there's a private dick in a world where asking questions is taboo,leaving memory as his sole resource. Government-distributed mind-altering drugs are everywhere, and each citizen carries to keep track of his or her karma points. Most of the menial work is done by genetically engineered English-speaking, bipedal "evolved" animals, and a kangaroo is gunning for the detective.
Gun, With Occasional Music by Jonathan Lethem

15. A highly unorthodox detective and a conjurer by profession whose act has fallen on hard times has cracked some of the city's most notorious murders. Now, he's leading the investigation into a shadowy religious group aiming to overtake London and do away with its oppressive, bourgeois tendencies. His partner—a giant, milk-swigging mute—doesn't appear to be human at all, yet serves as the detective's moral as well as intellectual compass.
The Somnambulist by Jonathan Barnes

Description #5, although just as odd and compelling as the others, is, in fact, a movie, not a book. The others, in all their glorious awesomeosity, are among my favorite reads.

August Reads

2011-09-01T20:24:00.005-05:00

August was a slow reading month. I'm going to go ahead and blame the heat. A mere 18 books last month (putting me at 191 for the year), but some of them were doozies: Ernest Cline's love letter to 80s nerd-dom, Sam Irvin's unputdownable book on Kay Swift, Steve Martin's latest novel (is there anything that man can't do?) Avi Steinberg's story of his time as a civilian librarian in a prison. Plus, now I have to track down James Reston's other books, especially Dogs of God, his book about the Spanish Inquistion (cue Monty Python jokes here).

Bujold, Lois McMaster Cryoburn

A new Vorkosigan story is always cause for celebration. Imperial Auditor Vorkosigan is sent to investigate a planet where cryogenics is the norm and, via companies holding their proxies, the dead can vote. A botched kidnapping attempt gets Miles involved with a local kid and an off-the-grid cryo-facility and more twists and turns than you can shake a stick at. There's also a powerful set-up for the next book in the series which breaks my heart, yet I can't wait to read.

Cline, Ernest Ready Player One

For its audience, this is near-about perfect. Games, quests, nostalgia, programming, hacking, trivia, movies, TV, computers—if you're into any of this, check it out. If you were into it in the 80s, stop reading this and read it right now. My full-length review can be found at RevolutionSF.com.

Elton, Charles Mr. Toppit

A severely (albeit comedically) dysfunctional family is turned inside out when the father, an unsuccessful screenwriter and author of a not-terribly-popular series of kids books, is run over and dies. Suddenly the American woman who rode to the hospital with him is an indispensable part of the family, the cranky German lady who illustrated the books is feeling left out and pushing her way into the funeral plans, and the 2 kids,brother and sister, are left on their own. The main character in the books was named after the brother (to his mortification) and the sister was not mentioned at all, which has torn at her mind. The key to everything is a third child who died and is never talked about. Interesting story and characters, but it was sold by quote and description as hilariously funny, which it wasn't, at least for me.

Finn, Mark Road Trip

A hitchhiker who looks like Elvis is picked up by a vintage pink Cadillac driven by a bitter and angry Cupid. They road-trip down to Texas to try to find Cupid's mom, rumored to be living in a trailer park near the beach. There's a lot here about old gods and new gods and how gods come into being and fade away, but truly I was charmed by cranky, foul-mouthed Cupid.

Gaiman, Neil The Graveyard Book

Clever readers will notice that this book popped up on last year's list as well. Stuck with a lack of new reading material, I picked up an old favorite for a re-read. It holds up very well, indeed. Bod's story is perhaps Gaiman's most effective book because it's his most accessible. Humor, horror, life, death, and through it all, love.

Golding, William; Wyndham, John; Peake, Mervyn Sometime, Never: Three Tales of Imagination

A story each by William Golding ("Envoy Extraordinary"), John Wyndham ("Consider Her Ways"), and Mervyn Peake ("Boy in Darkness") on the theme of imagination, all top-notch. Golding gives us a man thinking far ahead of his time in ancient Rome and the unexpected problems he encounters. Wyndham imagines a future without men, and Peake takes a lost boy on a surreal and dreamy trip involving human/animal hybrids and a mad animal king.

Greenburg, Martin H. and Silverberg, Robert The End of the World: Stories of the Apocalypse

Science fiction has long been fascinated with apocalypse stories, and this is a good collection of same. The stories are from a wide range of eras, yet don't seem dated. A particular favorite is Nancy Kress's “By Fools Like Me.”

Irvin, Sam Kay Thompson: From Funny Face to Eloise

I had no idea who Kay Thompson was, other than the connection to Eloise, and now having read the book, I can say with authority that my ignorance was a crime. What a fascinating person! Beyond her own eccentric personality, she knew EVERYBODY. And I mean everybody: Judy Garland (she was Liza's godmother), Danny Kaye, Cole Porter, Bogie and Bacall, Orson Welles, Gene Kelly, Andy Williams, Halston, Yves St. Laurent,...the list goes on and on. Staggeringly talented, brimming with ideas, and her own worst enemy—I couldn't put it down, and I can't wait to see Funny Face.
(If you're curious about Kay Swift, try Katharine Weber's The Memory of All That--Weber is Kay Swift's granddaughter and a mighty fine novelist to boot.)

Johnson, Angela A Cool Moonlight

8-year old Lila has xeroderma pigmentosum, which renders her deathly sensitive to light. She narrates the story of her reversed life in a dreamy, poetic way that's impossible to put down. Although she longs for the sun, she eventually embraces her role as “the moon girl.”

Martin, Steve An Object of Beauty

In his third novel, Martin takes us on a tour of the art world from the late 1990s to today, following the career of Lacey Yeager, a take-no-prisoners girl determined to come out on top. Martin tells us Lacey's story through the eyes of Daniel Franks, art writer and friend of Lacey. There's a great deal about art, both the business of it and the, well, art of it—the elusive qualities that make a painting great. It's a fascinating story, both funny and sad, and I didn't want it to end.

Reston, James Defenders of the Faith

A history of Europe and the Middle East at the end of the Renaissance/beginning of the Reformation, focusing mainly on Suleyman and Charles V, both officially Defenders of the Faith for their respective religions. Quick-moving and very readable, Reston's book makes clear just how close we came to Muslim rule up to the Rhine river during this time. There was so much waffling, back-stabbing, arrogance and intrigue going on, it's a wonder Christianity and European culture survived at all.

Rushdie, Salman Luka and the Fire of Life

Haroun Khalifi had his adventure in the marvelous Haroun and the Sea of Stories. Now it's little brother Luka's turn, and the stakes are much higher. Their father is dying, and Luka must journey through the same world as his brother did and steal the Fire of Life to save his father. There's a lot to love here: Luka is a great character, the language is beautiful, there's a sense of humor to go along with the sense of wonder. That said, I just didn't like the videogame concept, and, although the stakes were higher, I found the story weaker than Haroun's. It was still an enjoyable read, just not as enjoyable as Haroun and the Sea of Stories.

Skye, Obert Leven Thumps and the Whispered Secret

As with the first book in the series, there's not a whole lot new here: child treated badly discovers that he has powers and ends up on a quest. But also as with book one, the way that the story is told is quick and entertaining and fun. Clover is an awesome character, and the fact that he will be directly threatened in the next book could easily deepen the emotional impact of the story.

Skye, Obert Leven Thumps and the Eyes of the Want

Leven's story continues to that mid-series, everything falls apart, how-will-we-ever-get-out-of-THIS-one point. Somebody's been lying, and everyone is suspect. Leven meets the Want, who is an irascible loony and he tells Leven that Geth has been lying to him. Geth & Winter have been captured by Geth's one-time ally Azure, who tells Geth that the Want has been working towards the destruction of Foo. Given that we're at a depressing part of the story, the humor now seems forced and unpleasant. I'm no longer sure that I want to find out what happens to these people.

Steinberg, Avi Running the Books: The Adventures of an Accidental Prison Librarian

A most excellent opening paragraph leads the way into a a book that's part memoir, part expose, and part biography of the prisoners Avi meets. It's funny and fascinating, but it's also thoughtful and poignant. If you're looking for answers one way or the other about prisoners and the prison system, this isn't you book. But if you're looking for a chance to meet some interesting people and see the impact of prison on them, them on prison, and all of it on a civilian employee, then definitely give this one a try. (P.S. The book cover, with Steinberg's portrait created entirely out of library date stamps, is to die for.)

Travers, P.L. Mary Poppins

Long one of my favorite movies, this was my first reading of the book, and I was nervous. There's nothing worse than really wanting to like something and just not being able to. Luckily, I very much liked the book. The book's Mary Poppins is delightfully vain and brusque. Although you eventually realize that she does really care for the children, it's not as obvious as Julie Andrews made it. Plus, Mr. Banks isn't nearly so much of a twit.

VanderMeer, Jeff and VanderMeer, Ann The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities

I fell head over heels for the first Lambshead collection, and I'm loving this one, too. Many top-notch authors explicating individual treasures from the famed doctor's infamous cabinet or denouncing conspiracies involving same. I love the playfulness, and the editors do an outstanding job of creating a unifying voice. I only wish there was more from my one true love, Dr. Buckhead Mudthumper.

Willingham, Bill Fables 13: The Great Fables Crossover

After leaving (being kicked out) of the Fables narrative, con man Jack has had his own series, where he learned some of his origins and also of a threat to the Fables. This is what happens when Jack crosses back into the lives of our Fables, bringing with him someone who can change their reality at the stroke of a pen—or erase them entirely. You will never forget the sight of Bigby Wolf as the angriest little blonde girl you're ever likely to meet.

Challenge for Gianna

2011-08-31T17:52:00.006-05:00

Recently, after I mentioned the title of a book I had enjoyed ( One Day the Ice Will Reveal All Its Dead" by Clare Dudman), my friend Gianna said that she'd never heard of it. In fact, she insisted, she'd never heard of ANY of the books I talked about, and she accused me of making them up. So I thought I'd create a little challenge. I'm going to post a bunch of descriptions. Most will be of books that I've enjoyed (all released in the US, most from major publishers). One will not. Can you spot the thing that's not like the others? No fair Googling!

1. In an alternate, steampunk Victorian England, an opium-addicted special agent must help his assistant and the Queen's chief investigator to find a killer.

2. A secret service agent in love with a married woman gets involved with a covert baseball game between the Secret Service and the CIA, and falls into disfavor when he fails to stop the White House chef from serving Spam to the President and an honored guest.

3. Raleigh Hayes, an upstanding citizen of Thermopylae, N.C., and Mingo Sheffield, his needy next-door neighbor are on a two-week odyssey. They encounter a bizarre cast of characters during their adventures, including Raleigh's criminal half-brother Gates, his prison buddy Weeper Berg, and aging jazzman Toutant Kingstree. Their quest is to recapture Hayes's ailing father, who has escaped from the hospital with a young black woman in a recently-purchased Cadillac convertible, and who has left Raleigh a strange set of tasks to fulfill before a planned rendezvous in New Orleans.

4. Frank has built an elaborate device in a giant clock wherein a different death awaits the wasp put into it behind each number. He believes the death 'chosen' by the wasp predicts something about the future. He kills other animals as well, and uses their bodies to "protect" his territory. He occupies himself with his rituals and an array of weapons to control the island and occasionally gets drunk with his dwarf friend Jamie in the local pub. Frank's older brother Eric is in an insane asylum. He escapes and rings Frank from phone boxes informing him he is coming to visit.

5. A scientist in a surrealist society kidnaps children to steal their dreams, hoping that they slow his aging process. When his little brother is kidnapped, a strongman joins forces with a young girl to rescue the children.

6. A pilot for a cosmetics company crashes the company plane while having sex. This event causes him to be blacklisted from flying in the United States, so he accepts a lucrative offer from a doctor-missionary on a remote Micronesian island to transport cargo to and from the island and Japan. He moves to the island, along with a male Filipino transvestite navigator and a talking fruit bat.

7. When their traveling circus begins to fail, a couple devise an idea to breed their own freak show, using various drugs and radioactive material to alter the genes of their children. The results are a boy with flippers for hands and feet; Siamese twins; a hunchbacked albino dwarf; and the normal-looking baby of the family who has telekinetic powers.

8. Doug Hoover never liked work and he changed jobs and women frequently. Dissatisfied with his current life, he hooks up with Sue Jean and takes off. When he comes to the end of his journey, a wonderful town where everything costs a nickel, he realizes he has died and must decide whether or not to go back in another form. Some of the people he discusses this with are Billy the Kid, the Red Baron, and assorted Wild West and World War I aces. The heaven they are in has cars, dogs, cats, ribs, saloons, and sex.

9. Since the death of his young daughter, a successful children's book author has begun seeing the fantastical creatures from his book come to life. He's also being stalked by a lunatic who claims to be his biggest fan.

10. The president agrees to appear in a series of dangerous illusions for a magician. All seems well, but when the president dies mysteriously hours later, the magician has to flee the country. Pursued by hapless of FBI agents, he falls in love with a beautiful blind woman and confronts an old nemesis bent on destroying him.

11. Recovering from the death of his wife, Jack, an engineer living in Austin, Texas, meets and falls in love with Lily, a perfect beauty except, perhaps, for her wings and clawed bird-feet. Lily is the goddess of the moon and can meet Jack only when the moon is full, and then only if he awaits her outside, stark naked. When this requirement leads to his being arrested for indecent exposure, a motley crew of friends comes to his aid.

12. In the hospital recuperating from an attack by a rabid squirrel, Hap wonders why his best friend hasn't been by to visit. Turns out that Leonard, upset by his boyfriend leaving him, goes to the biker bar and beats Raul's new man up.When the biker turns up dead later that night, it doesn't take long to guess who the primary suspect is--especially with Leonard nowhere to be found. After Hap checks himself out of the hospital and finds Leonard hiding in his bed, they stumble onto a conspiracy involving gaybasher pornography and Leonard's ready to exact some vigilante justice.

13. A split-brained data processor is summoned by a deranged scientist and his granddaughter and told that the scientist has devised a perfect secret code by operating on the brains of selected computer workers. Alternating between these encounters with the scientist, the scientist's granddaughter, Lauren Bacall, Bob Dylan, and various thugs, librarians, subterranean monsters and bully-boys bent on finding out what he knows, there is the story of the ancient walled town at the end of the world.

14. In a near-future city, there's a private dick in a world where asking questions is taboo,leaving memory as his sole resource. Government-distributed mind-altering drugs are everywhere, and each citizen carries to keep track of his or her karma points. Most of the menial work is done by genetically engineered English-speaking, bipedal "evolved" animals, and a kangaroo is gunning for the detective.

15. A highly unorthodox detective and a conjurer by profession whose act has fallen on hard times has cracked some of the city's most notorious murders. Now, he's leading the investigation into a shadowy religious group aiming to overtake London and do away with its oppressive, bourgeois tendencies. His partner—a giant, milk-swigging mute—doesn't appear to be human at all, yet serves as the detective's moral as well as intellectual compass.

I'll post the book list after everyone has had a chance to guess.

July Reads

2011-08-02T09:19:00.008-05:00

Summer is in full blast now (or should I say blast furnace), and any time spent outside causes me to wilt like the delicate flower that I am (shut up, Klaw). In times like this, the only thing that makes sense is to stay indoors and get to reading. 27 books make this month's list, ranging from silly, gross schoolday tales to true stories of some extraordinary women. Both The Tin Ticket and The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks should not be missed and Margaret Atwood's In Other Worlds was a sheer pleasure to read. Fictionally, it's safe to say that I'm completely hooked on George Mann and can't wait to get my hands on The Osiris Ritual. For those keeping count, I think this brings my total to 173 books read since January. That's a lot of books!

Anderson, M.T. The Game of Sunken Places

Called to visit an eccentric uncle, 2 boys find themselves competing in a game that no one can (or will) explain. Some adventure, and a couple of likeable characters, but overall an unpleasant bunch of folks to spend time with.

Atwood, Margaret In Other Worlds: SF and the Human Imagination

In this collection of essays and reviews about science fiction, Atwood proves herself to be an savvy writer, a deep reader, and a charming companion. Elegant and wide-ranging, insightful and humorous—it's a delight to spend time in Ms. Atwood's company.

Black, Holly & Justine Larbalestier Zombies vs. Unicorns

Back in 2007, Black and her co-editor Justine Larbalestier began an argument over the relative merits of unicorns (Black) and zombies (Larbalestier). This anthology is the culmination of that argument. The stories are good, but the joy of this anthology is the continual sniping between the editrixes before each story. Favorites include Naomi Novik's “Purity Test,” Scott Westerfield's “Inoculata,” Meg Cabot's “Princess Prettypants,” and Libba Bray's “Prom Night.”

Buford, Kate Native American Son: the Life and Sporting Legend of Jim Thorpe

Buford takes an in-depth look at the life of Jim Thorpe. She wades admirably through the layers of myth and legend and gives us a portrait of a greatly gifted man who was victimized by others, but who also caused or worsened many of his problems through his own behavior. Buford also gives a detailed portrait of Native American life at the turn of the century and the government and society's attitudes toward Native Americans.

Cremer, Andrea Nightshade

Teen werewolves, along with some other supernatural elements. It's a new spin on werewolves, and there's some interesting story going on. What there wasn't was any indication that this was “book 1 of some indeterminate number,” so the complete non-ending was intensely irritating.

Durham, David Anthony The Sacred Band: Acacia, the War With the Mein 3

You know, until the little “The Story So Far” introduction, I had forgotten just how many plot threads were left dangling at the non-end of book 2. Re-connecting to the multitudinous characters and plot threads without a re-read is not easy, but the characters are so well done and the plot threads are so intriguing that you get all caught up in them anyway. I would have thought that it would take a much bigger book to bring things to a satisfying conclusion, but Durham manages very well. The story moves so fast it fairly sings, and the conclusion is extremely satisfying.

Irwin, Stephen M. The Dead Path

The first flat-out horror book that I've read in a while, The Dead Path really keeps you hooked. It's fast-moving and admirably creepy (and the book cover glows disturbingly in the dark). After a short stint in London, the bulk of the book takes place in Australia, and Irwin is adept at putting a plot that involves the highly British legends of the Green Man into the more rough-and-tumble Aussie language and setting. One thing—if you have a problem with spiders, you might want to give this one a pass. Seriously.

Kakalios, James The Amazing Story of Quantum Mechanics

It's no secret what drew me to this book: the subtitle is A Math-Free Exploration of the Science That Made Our World. Math-free? That's for me. Sadly, as Kakalios admits in his introduction, it's not really math-free, merely math-simple (as defined by a physicist). Still and all, it's an enjoyable read. Kakalios is a self-admitted nerd and geek, and he draws his examples and illustrations from comic books. He's got a very accessible, conversational style, and he's not above a bad pun or two. Do I understand quantum mechanics now? No. Am I closer to understanding quantum mechanics? Definitely.

Kinney, Jeff Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules

Greg Heffley is back, and his problems haven't gotten any better. Greg's jokes all backfire, his schemes come apart, Rowley is more popular (especially with the girls), and his older brother Rodrick gets away with everything, including making Greg's life miserable. Do you think Greg will ever realize that 98% of the problems he faces are his own fault? Nah, probably not.

Knowlton, Nancy Citizens of the Sea

A compact compendium of facts about the ocean and its critters chock full of gorgeous photos and fascinating tales. Awesome!

Lockhart, E. The Boy Book

School has started up again, and Ruby Oliver is still a pariah. None of her former friends are speaking with her, she has no boyfriend, the whole school thinks she's a slut, and she's still seeing a shrink. When Kim (her former best friend) goes to Japan for a semester abroad, Jackson (Ruby's ex, who Kim stole) starts to get friendly again. Ruby tries to regain her friends, sort out her feelings for Jackson (and Angelo, and Noel) and get some kind of handle on her life. Ruby's not perfect, but she is funny and a delight to spend time with.

Mann, George The Affinty Bridge

Damn you, George Mann! Zombies & steampunk in the same book, and he makes me like it. The man has some kind of infenal powers. The inaugural adventures of Sir Maurice Newbury and Veronica Hobbes is an excellent introduction to the series. A series of murders in Whitechapel may or may not have supernatural origins, so Newbury is called in to investigate. In the middle of this case, the Queen calls him to the scene of a mysterious airship crash which has taken the life of a Dutch cousin. Things are odd at the crash site, with the pilot missing and the passengers perishing while tied to their seats. Is there a connection between the two cases? Zombies, automatons, a smattering of the occult, laudanum addiction, and the revelation that, unbeknownst to Newbury, Hobbes is also an agent of the Queen, hired to keep an eye on Newbury and his addictions.

Perez-Reverte, Arturo The Sun Over Breda

We finally see Captain Alatriste at war, as Spain tries to hold onto its martial glory in Flanders. Despite his worship of Alatriste and a boy's excitement about war, glory, and honor, Inigo learns that there is no glory in war, and honor only in those who fight unflinchingly, because that's what they said they would do.

Raskin, Ellen The Tattooed Potato and Other Clues

Mini-mysteries set inside a larger mystery. Lots of silliness and wordplay, but very dated.

Russell, Thaddeus A Renegade History of the United States

A very interesting way of looking at American history, and some truly fascinating information. But my interests do not coincide with Russell's, and where he spent pages I would have preferred paragraphs, and where he had a few paragraphs, I would have preferred pages. The radical notion that Russell proposes is that democracy isn't about freedom; in fact, it's often more repressive than other systems of government, but the repression comes from the individuals rather than the government. He also takes pains to point out the freedoms we enjoy today that would not have been possible without prostitutes, drunkards, and organized crime. Fascinating stuff.

Sachar, Louis There's a Boy in the Girl's Bathroom

Bradley Chalkers is the boy everyone avoids, students and teachers alike. He's weird, he's mean, he doesn't do homework, and he doesn't have friends. But then he meets the school counselor, Carla, and discovers what it's like to not be judged and to not have to hate all the time. It's a quick read, with a lot of humor, and Bradley Chalkers will charm your socks off and break your heart.

Schroder, Monika Saraswati's Way

Akash has a gift for math, but his family is in debt and cannot afford to continue his schooling. When his father dies, his grandmother gives him to the man who holds their debt, who forces Akash to work at his quarry. When the first payday comes, Akash's abilities allow him to see that he will never be able to work off the debt, so he runs away. Falling in with a gang of street kids, Akash finds himself challenged: exactly how far is he willing to go to earn the money for tutoring? Fast-moving, and Akash is certainly likeable, although you never really get the sense that he won't succeed.

Skloot, Rebecca The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

When Henrietta Lacks, poor and black, went to the doctor because of pain, a doctor took a sample of her cancer cells without asking her (or even telling her). Henrietta died, quickly and in great pain, and for her family, that was the end of it. For doctors, however, the story was only beginning, because Henrietta's cells lived on, becoming the first strain of cells hardy enough for testing and experiments. Doctors, hospitals, and labs around the world made great breakthroughs (and, not incidentally, a ton of money), while Henrietta's family couldn't even afford health insurance. Skloot covers issues of privacy and ownership and scientific gain, but the heart of this story is Henrietta's family, cut off and wounded, and their rediscovery of their mother.

Starr, Douglas The Killer of Little Shepherds

Although certainly not the first serial killer, Joseph Vacher was the first to be caught using what we would think of as the modern tools of criminal investigation: careful autopsy, scientific testing, profiling, and correlation of data from different areas. Vacher was an odd and interesting killer, but the real fascinating stuff here is the birth of modern forensics and the personalities involved in it. Good read!

Stine, R.L. Rotten School 4: Lose, Team Lose

Early chapter book for kids with no supernatural bits and no horror (except for the gross-out factor of frequent hurling or a gassy bulldog). Bernie tries to turn around the football team's losing season and ends up having to spend time with Jennifer Ecch, who's totally, horribly in love with him. Light and funny with some terrible puns (i.e., Coach Manly Bunz).

Stine, R.L. Rotten School 5: Shake, Rattle, and Hurl

Bernie schemes to win the school talent show by using Chipmunk, the shyest kid in school. Fast-moving shenannigans and a hero who just won't quit.

Stine, R.L. Rotten School 6: The Heinie Prize

Bernie's slave, er, friend Belzer gets a letter telling him his parents are tired of hearing about Bernie, so they're going to pull him out of school. Unwilling to loses a well-trained slave, Bernie pulls out all the stops to make sure Belzer wins the Heinie Prize for outstanding student.

Swiss, Deborah J. The Tin Ticket

Just prior to the reign of Queen Victoria, the British government attempted to solve two of its problems (the threat of losing its Australian colonies due to a lack of colonists and a massive underclass of working poor forced to steal simply to survive) by transporting its prisoners to the far-flung colonies and forcing them to serve their time there. Some 25,000 of these transportees were women (their dependent children were often transported, too), most convicted of petty theft. Their lives in Britain were miserable and cruel, prison was worse, the transport itself was dangerous, and the life awaiting them was no improvement. Swiss uses the stories of a few women to illustrate the whole situation, and does a remarkable job. It's impossible to read about these women's lives and not be moved by their sheer stubborn survival. Awesome book.

Thomas, Scarlett Our Tragic Universe

Intricate character detail and some heady science and philosophy about heaven, hell, and the nature of existence weakened by an insistence that, if a novel has a plot, it is generic and somehow inherently less (artistic, literary, worthy) than one solely concerned with ideas.

Tolan, Stephanie S. Surviving the Applewhites

Jake Semple has been thrown out of every school he's been put into, the last time, it's rumored, for burning the school down. As a last ditch effort, he's sent to the Applewhites, a disgustingly creative family (mom's a writer, dad's a director, the kids are dancers, sculptors, etc.) whose kids are given free reign over their own education. E.D., the only non-artistic Applewhite, is also the only Applewhite who cares about schedules, organization, school, & she & Jake clash from the start. There's a lot of humor in the Applewhite's chaotic household, but there are a lot of jerks, too. Everyone is selfish, forgetful, and neglectful, and dad's an outright jackass. Sure, they all pull together to put on a show out in the barn, but you never get a sense that they have any idea just how awful they've been to Jake, to E.D., and especially to 4-year old Destiny.

Trevino, Elizabeth Borton de I, Juan de Pareja

Juan de Pareja was born a slave in 17th century Spain. When his mistress died, he was sent with the rest of her goods to her nephew, the painter Diego Velasquez. Despite their differences in station, the two men become friends, and eventually Juan becomes an artist in his own right, despite it being illegal to teach a slave any of the arts. Very interesting story, with a lot of detail about life in Spain and Italy during that time.

Yovanoff, Brenda The Replacement

Mackie Doyle is an outcast at school—too pale, eyes too dark, sickly, faints at the sight of blood. He hates being different, but the thing is, he IS different. Mackie Doyle isn't really Mackie Doyle at all—he's a replacement, left behind when the real Mackie was taken away, never to be seen again. Kids have always gone missing in Gentry, but now it's the little sister of a girl Mackie likes and he's determined to get her back. Along the way he meets his own people and discovers the dark secret that links his people and the town of Gentry.

The June Book List

2011-07-01T20:56:00.005-05:00

July 1st, and y'all know what that means: it's time to share my erratic reading journey once again. I'm all over the map this month: history, classics, literary fiction, SF, horror, biography, and so on. I'm really intrigued by the idea behind the Pulp History series (represented on the list by David Talbot & Spain Rodriguez's collaboration Devil Dog) and I'm looking forward to trying some more of them out. Goodness knows I'd have been more likely to sit down and read a history book if it looked like that when I was a kid. I also really loved my second go-round with Matthew Dicks. He has a gift for making really outrageous situations seem plausible, plus he makes me laugh. Annie Jacobsen's history of Area 51 was right up my alley (those who remember my bookstore days will perhaps remember my fondness for the Insurrection/Conspiracy section), and I plan a more in-depth review of it, but if I had to pick a favorite, I think it would be the ARC of George Mann's The Immorality Engine. Tell the truth, Jim: you were reading the description, got to the words "seedy opium den," and automatically thought of me. Well you were right on, because that was pure fun to read. I've got The Affinity Bridge sitting on my stack even as we speak, and I can't wait.

So without further adieu, let me introduce you to the 22 books I read in June:

Atwood, Margaret The Penelopiad

Atwood re-imagines The Odyssey from the point of view of Penelope and the 12 young maids who were hanged upon Odysseus' return. Interesting, funny feminist twist with points to make about sex roles, history, and myth-making.

Burgess, Matt Dogfight: A Love Story

Alfredo Batista is 19-years old. He's a small-time weed dealer and he's broke, which means he can't do a lot for his 7-months pregnant girlfriend, Isabel. His violent older brother is about to be released from prison, and even if he doesn't believe that Alfredo ratted him out (as the rest of the neighborhood does), he's not going to be thrilled to find out that Alfredo got Isabel (who was HIS girlfriend) pregnant. Funny and sad.

Cleary, Beverly Dear Mr. Henshaw

A boy struggling with his parents' divorce writes a series of letters to his favorite author. Sad and funny and a good quick read.

Conlon, Christopher He Is Legend: an Anthology Celebrating Richard Matheson

I'm a Matheson fan, so I came to this anthology with high hopes. I wasn't disappointed. The editor assumes that anyone interested in this anthology is well aware of who Matheson is and is already familiar with his stories. In most cases, the short description of the Matheson story that inspired the new story is enough to jog the reader's memory. Given that “Prey” is my favorite Matheson story, and that Joe R. Lansdale is one of my favorite authors, it's no surprise that “Quarry” tops my list.

Dicks, Matthew Something Missing

Martin Railsback is a thief, and he's very good at it. He is not, however, your typical thief. He takes things you won't miss: a couple of rolls of toilet paper, an extra bottle of Liquid Plumr, the dusty china at the back of your cabinet that you never use, or, brilliantly, one diamond earring. This enables him to return to the same houses over and over again, with no one ever suspecting a thing. Martin researches his “clients” thoroughly, and keeps up with their lives. In fact, he's now come to think of these clients as friends, and one day he takes the unusual step of actually helping out a client. It's complicated and way out of his comfort zone (which is small and OCD-like), but success is intoxicating. Now one if his clients is in real danger, and Martin has to figure out how (or even if) to help. Really funny, with likeable characters and a quick pace.

Ellroy, James The Hilliker Curse

Ellroy's second non-fiction book. The first was compelling and off-putting all at the same time, leaving you fascinated, but not quite sure that you'd ever actually like to meet the man. This one leaves no doubt. Written in clunky Kerouac-ian jive, this is Ellroy's story of the women in his life, starting with the beautiful mother that he wished dead only to have her actually murdered. Unsurprisingly, this messed him up and he's never quite recovered. While Ellroy doesn't shy away from his own mistakes and hang-ups, it's still difficult to connect with him, perhaps because his conversational style seems so artificial and off-putting.

Jacobsen, Annie Area 51: An Uncensored History of America's Top Secret Military Base

Superior documentation, a thorough yet casual writing style and a real “Holy F___balls!” moment make this a treat to read. Jacobson tries to find a balance between the times when secrecy really did save lives and the times when it was simply used to sweep embarrassing (and lethal) failures under the carpet. Is the grand reveal true? I don't know. But it's certainly possible, and I wouldn't put it past anyone involved.

Jamshed, Nabila Wish Upon a Time: The Legendary Scimitar

There's a plot in there somewhere, but the author is far too in love with her own voice to make the journey pleasant. There's some fun stuff here, but over all it's jerky, draggy, and the characters and their motivations are often confusing.

Mann, George The Immorality Engine

I am late to the party on George Mann (this being book 3 & me having not yet read books 1 or 2), but I intend to make up for lost time. DAMN but that was fun (with steampunk, even!)! Check out these elements: Victorian England with steam-driven carriages & airships, seedy opium dens, secret agents, secret societies, reckless thieves, duplicate people, steam-driven shoulder cannons, clairvoyance, the occult, and, at the center of the web, Queen Victoria herself, literally heartless, with only clever machinery and a mysterious fluid keeping her alive. I will acquaint myself with the other books with all speed.

O'Brien, Robert C. Z For Zachariah

A 16-year old girl who lives in a valley believes that she's the only survivor of a nuclear war. She makes do on her family's farm as best she can, until the day she realizes she's not the only survivor. Mr. Loomis, in his early 30's, arrives in a radiation suit. He becomes ill, but as his strength returns, the girl realizes that his intentions are not honorable—he's killed before and won't hesitate to do it again. Very realistic, and therefore very depressing.

Peck, Richard The Teacher's Funeral: A Comedy in Three Parts

An old-timey, turn-of-the-century type story told by a boy whose greatest wish (the death of his teacher, Miss Myrt) and greatest fear (his own bossy sister Tansy becoming the new teacher) come true. Hijinks ensue. It's a quaint book, with a lot of humor. Given that it was written in 2004, Peck does a fabulous job of capturing the early 1900's both in description and in style.

Perez-Reverte, Arturo Purity of Blood

Captain Alatriste agrees to help an old ally who has friends wishing to rescue their daughter from a degenerate priest in a convent, even though attacking a convent will put them afoul of the Inquisition. Unbeknownst to them, old enemies are in league with the Inquisition and a trap has been set. Alatriste escapes, but the narrator, 13-year old Inigo, is captured, tortured, and scheduled to be burned at the stake. Alatriste must decide whether to risk himself to rescue Inigo. Poetry, history, politics, religion, honor, venality, degeneracy—what more could you want in a book?

Potok, Chaim The Chosen

Potok's story of two very different Jewish boys growing up in the shadow of World War II is a classic, and justifiably so. Potok plays no favorites, letting the boys discover the pros and cons of their own choices and their own faiths. An absolutely beautiful testament to friendship.

Rhodes, Richard The Making of the Atomic Bomb

Rhodes' exhaustively-researched history makes for some fascinating (if math/chemistry/physics-intensive) reading. He produces as balanced a portrait as possible about the men and women who created the bomb and the reasons that they did. Still, perhaps because of its age (originally published in 1986), I wonder if some of the history might read differently today with some of the more recent declassified documents. In any event, a worthwhile read.

Ribowsky, Mark Ain't to Proud to Beg: the Troubled Lives and Enduring Soul of the Temptations

The story of the Temptations is complicated and fascinating. Ribowsky does a good job with the history, and most of the time with the descriptions of the songs (although sometimes he seems a bit over the top). It seems (to me, anyway) to be pretty fair to everyone involved—nobody is a hero, and nobody is completely a villain. Fast-moving and fun to read.

Talbot, David Devil Dog: The Amazing True Story of the Man Who Saved America

Devil Dog is the opening salvo in a new series called “pulp history,” where author Talbot and illustrator Spain Rodriguez use a myriad of techniques to tell the story of a forgotten historical figure, in this case Smedley Darlington Butler, one of the most highly decorated Marines ever. It's a fascinating story, covering the Boxer Rebellion, wars in Nicaragua and Haiti and World War I. Butler was a gung-ho Marine, but he was also an intelligent man who questioned the reasons behind his assignments and later used his fame to assist returned veterans being shabbily treated by our government and even to foil a plot against the President. Great story, and an interesting format.

Turner, Joan Frances Dust

Yeah, I know: I said I was done with zombies. It seems like every time I decide that, something comes along that sounds just interesting enough that I have to try it. I'm glad I did. Turner has a fresh take on zombies, and gives us a zombie-eye view of her world. You can't help but root for Jessie, and there are some pretty amazing twists and turns to be had here. It's gross and horrible and funny and sad and an excellent read.

Wilder, Thornton The Bridge of San Luis Rey

An ancient bridge in Lima, Peru collapses, killing 5 people. Brother Juniper, a Franciscan, investigates their lives to try to find out why God took those five people. Although a Divine reason is never found, love, in all of its forms is the bridge connecting both those 5 people and all others. The character portraits are absolutely stunning.

Willingham, Bill Fables 12: The Dark Ages

Having finally defeated the Adversary, a new scourge arises to make life miserable for the Fables. Gepetto has been given amnesty and moved to Fabletown (Pinocchio's price for the information that allowed the Fables to defeat Gepetto), but, not surprisingly, he is not having a smooth transition. His constant complaints about the way Fabletown is run actually make some good points, but no one's paying attention. As Gepetto's magical protection is slowly undone, powerful magic beings that he captured and harnessed are being released, and they're not happy. Mr. Dark, former owner of the Cloak, is awake and wants to punish those who've used it in his absence. He strips the magic from Fabletown, destroying it completely & forcing everyone to the Farm, where they proceed to marginalize the talking animals yet again. The other fallout from the destruction of the Cloak is the lingering illness and eventual death of Little Boy Blue. His friends hold out hope that his story is strong enough to bring him back, but no one knows what will happen. Tons of action, new characters, and further development of those we've already come to know. Fantastic.

Wyndham, John The Day of the Triffids

When a cataclysm that may or may not be man-made causes most of the population to go blind, civilization quickly falls (aided by mobile plants that may or may not be intelligent and may or may not be man-made). We follow William Masen in his attempt to find and make a new life. Ya know, I understand that this was written in the 50s and all, but jeezum crow I wish that all women weren't A) bubbleheads, and B) only useful as baby-makers. Sometimes I can let that go and sometimes I just can't. It's not that Wyndham doesn't have points to make about war, power, and Things Man Was Not Meant To Mess With, it's just that I have trouble following them over the grinding of my own teeth.

Yu, Charles How To Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe

Charles Yu is a time travel repairman who uses his time machine to hide from life in this extended metaphor about loss, regret, and connecting. Funny, sad, and very clever.

Bad Movies, Good Company

2011-06-06T17:51:00.004-05:00

Recently I had the chance to get together with some people that I knew back when I was in college (1984-1988): Leigh, Trina, and Kyle. Our connection back then was The Rocky Horror Picture Show, beginning as fans and eventually leading to the performance cast; in short, we spent an inordinate amount of time running around in darkened theaters in our underwear (or less) shouting profanity at the tops of our lungs. Good times.

Leigh and I were already friends when we met the other two, and Leigh and I kept in touch through the years, remaining friends. Contact with Trina was more sporadic (totally my fault), but we had recently re-connected via mutual friends, a fondness for ArmadilloCon, and facebook. Kyle I had not seen or spoken to since college.

I was curious about the weekend we planned--sure, we had a lot of fun back then, but a lot of time had passed. Would we still have stuff in common, or were we in for a polite yet brutally uncomfortable time together?

The theme for the weekend was Bad Movies (okay, technically it was Bad Movies and Alcohol), with everyone bringing stuff to choose from. As we started unpacking our choices and looking over everyone else's, the conversation took off: categories of "bad", bad slasher films, Troma, SYFY crappy-mutant-monster-of-the-week movies, etc..

As we happily kibitzed and argued and teased each other, it was clear that our shared Rocky Horror past wasn't the only thing binding us together. These are genuinely smart, funny, knowledgeable people, and while are tastes aren't necessarily the same, they do overlap quite nicely. In short, a geek twenty years ago is probably still a geek today, so chances are you'll still have lots of common ground.

Re-connecting with old friends can be a fine, fine thing, because sometimes you need to discuss the relative merits of Sharktopus versus Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus (Sharktopus wins, hands down) or reduce the frankly awful Sleepaway Camp to a chorus of "Is it me, or does that chick have man-hands?" or decry the woeful lack of lesbians in a film called Blood Sisters of Lesbian Sin (and no, Lloyd Kaufman, an introductory sequence of you leering at two girls making out does not count).

May Reads

2011-06-01T08:20:00.006-05:00

I'd say it doesn't seem like it could be June already, but then I walk outside into 97-degree weather with a balmy 400% humidity, and it's clear that summer is indeed upon us. For me, that means more time inside in glorious, air-conditioned comfort with my nose stuck in a book. Exhibit A: my May booklist (29 books, for those keeping count)--an eclectic collection with some real standouts like Julia Stuart's The Tower, the Zoo, and the Tortoise, Matthew Dicks' Unexpectedly Milo, and Peter S. Beagle's The Secret History of Fantasy.

Allende, Isabel Eva Luna
The story of Eva Luna is a story about stories and storytelling. Allende is adept at weaving magic with words, making the most outrageous situations seem natural. I love her stuff.

Beagle, Peter S. The Secret History of Fantasy
Although I understand the frustration of writers tired of being marginalized, it's difficult to talk about without sounding whiny. Ursula LeGuin manages; Beagle, not so much. But none of that takes away from the fact that this is a stellar anthology whose lineup of participating authors should open a few eyes regarding “fantasy literature.” Particular favorites include Steven Millhauser's “The Barnum Museum,” “The Empire of Ice Cream” by Jeffrey Ford, Octavia E. Butler's “The Book of Martha,” and “26 Monkeys, Also the Abyss” by Kij Johnson.

Bolano, Roberto The Return
A collection of short stories from the late Bolano. It's odd that, for me, at least, Bolano doesn't sing until he taps into the life of woman who's had enough of the macho BS culture (“Murderous Whores”). There's a tenderness when he writes as a woman (even a murderous one) that he generally doesn't allow himself when he writes as a man (exceptions would be “Buba,” a soccer-themed story of brotherhood and magic, and “Prefiguration of Lalo Cura,” about a boy raised on porn sets). Bolano is angry and harder-edged than most of the more well-known Latin American writers, and he's not shy about expressing his disdain for most of them.

Clemons, Leigh Branding Texas
A study of how Texas sees and presents itself, both in performance (film, TV, & theatrical) and in real life. Fascinating stuff.

Datlow, Ellen Teeth: Vampire Tales
An anthology edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling is always going to be quality, and this one, featuring stories of teens, vampires, and teen vampires is no exception. Particular favorites include Genevieve Valentine's “Things To Know About Being Dead,” Suzy McKee Charnas's “Late Bloomer,” Garth Nix's “Vampire Weather,” and “Best Friends Forever” by Cecil Castellucci.

Denton, Brad Blackburn
Jimmy Blackburn is a killer, but he only kills those who deserve it: men who hit women, cheating husbands, men who are cruel to dogs. Denton shows us how Jimmy was created and where he ends up with a fair amount of humor along the way.

Dicks, Matthew Unexpectedly Milo
Unexpectedly Milo is unexpectedly awesome! Milo Slade suffers from OCD and has spent his life hiding his affliction from others. He's been startlingly successful; even his wife has no idea. But now his marriage is breaking up and he's struggling to figure out how to fix it when he happens upon a video camera and some tapes. The tapes turn out to be the video diary of a woman who believes herself responsible for the recent death of her best friend and also for the presumed death of her childhood best friend who she helped to run away and who was never seen again. Milo decides to try to find the missing girl and reunite the two, and this is the story of his quest. Funny, sad, heartfelt, and absolutely just right.

Dozois, Gardner Year's Best SF & Fantasy 27
Some excellent stories (as always), but what I really love about these collections is the “state of the genre” essays and the “Honorable Mention” lists. If you're a genre fan, this is a fantastic guide to some of the top stories available in a given year.

Green, John An Abundance of Katherines
Colin Singleton is a former child prodigy who's terrified that he's not a genius and that therefore he will never matter. He has also dated (and been dumped by) 19 girls, all named Katherine. Now, after a ridiculously short post-graduation road trip, Colin and his best (and only) friend Hassan find themselves in Gutshot, Tennessee, living in an enormous pink house and interviewing town residents about the history of the town. None of which comes close to describing how awesome and fun this was to read (even though it involves math).

Harper, Charise Mericle Flashcards of My Life
In a clever combination of words and pictures, Emily tells us her story. It's chock full of crazy school “He likes you. Do you like him?” shenanigans, and Emily has a great voice, but somehow it didn't gel completely for me.

Keating, Mark The Pirate Devlin
Serviceable pirate fare with a hyper-competent pirate captain with intelligence, skill, and heart but the poor taste to be born Irish and poor and therefore worthless. Unsurprisingly, he is wildly successful as a pirate with the freedom to use his many skills without societal strictures. Strangely, as hyper-competent as Devlin is, he spends his entire first adventure making life-long enemies who will no doubt pop up periodically to interfere in his happy pirate life before being vanquished yet again and left to shake their sad, non-piratical fists in the air and curse the pirate Devlin.

Keeler, Harry Stephen The Riddle of the Traveling Skull
I've read about Keeler for years: crazy plots, loopy dialogue, terrible accents, eccentric characters, and not a lick of sense in the whole lot. A critic (one who LIKED Keeler) once said that his books read as if they had been translated from the original Choctaw. This was my first chance to actually read Keeler himself, and I have to say, it's all true. If you're looking for characters with understandable motivations or plots that actually make sense, look elsewhere. If, however, you enjoy sheer exuberance and creativity, then give Mr. Keeler a try.

Kenyon, Sherrilyn Invincible
Book 2 of the Chronicles of Nick picks up right after the events of book 1. Nick is slowly realizing that he is surrounded by beings that only seem human, and that most of them want him dead. This, however, doesn't make him any less of a smart-ass. Nick also learns that he is fated to destroy the world unless something seriously changes and begins to suspect that his “Uncle” Ambrose might not be who he says he is. Fast-paced and a lot of humor, but Kenyon takes care to deepen some of her characters along the way, lending some depth to the story. Nick is a fourteen-year old boy, which means that at various points in the book, everybody (the reader included) wants to smack him, but he has a good heart and it's easy to root for him.

Leonard, Elmore Out of Sight
US Marshall Karen Sisco is serving a warrant at a prison when she arrives in the middle of a jailbreak & is captured. Forced into the trunk with one of the escapees, she finds him oddly charming, as he does her. She makes her escape and he eludes the authorities, but neither can stop thinking about the other. They meet again, over drinks in a snowstorm, and the stage is set for a final meeting with Foley swearing he won't go back to prison, & Sisco swearing she'll bring him in.

Leonard, Elmore When the Women Come Out to Dance
A collection of short stories featuring some appearances by characters Leonard has made famous in his novels. Some are good, some are great.

Leonard, Elmore Tishomingo Blues
High diver Dennis Lenahan accidentally witnesses a murder. Soon after, he meets Robert Taylor, a smooth-talker from Detroit who has his own agenda in the area. Toss in an unbending CBI agent, a retired baseball pitcher, and a Civil War re-enactment and soon Dennis is heading to his own rendezvous with Robert Johnson's infamous crossroads, and contemplating his own deal with the devil. Funny, fast-moving, and Leonard keeps you guessing the whole time.

Mancusi, Mari Gamer Girl
Maddy's parents have split and she's had to move from Boston and all of her friends to a small town full of the tragically unhip (she calls them Aberzombies, which makes me giggle). Outside events (a grandmother who still thinks she's 8, mom jeans, and a unicorn sweater) combine with her own quasi-goth, manga-loving geekiness to make her a total outcast at school. She finds solace in an online fantasy game, where she meets a boy who seems perfect. She struggles at school and at home, trying to find her way in this new world. A little something for the geek girl in all of us.

Mieville, China Embassytown
Mieville returns with this tale of a lonely, backwater world and an alien race for whom language has no symbolism. A crisis occurs and everyone must learn new ways of thinking in order to communicate.

Moore, Terry Strangers in Paradise: Ever After
Terry Moore finally brings his epic to a close, and it's as surprising, comforting, sad, silly, horrible and wonderful as you'd expect. Griffin Silver's girlfriend, Nikki, helps Francine finally see what she needs to be happy. She leaves Brad and beelines for Katchoo, determined to live happily ever after. Despite everyone's best efforts, David succumbs to his brain tumor. At the reading of his will (Freddie Femur, of all people, is his executor), David leaves everything to Katchoo but asks that 4 letters be read aloud which air some secrets that really hurt Katchoo. She leaves with David's ashes, determined to find a beautiful place to let him go. Francine calls on Tambi to find Katchoo, then surprises her in Santa Fe, where she confesses her love and kisses Katchoo. Katchoo blows her off and tells her she's not serious. Francine is hurt, but determined. They find a house that they fall in love with, and Francine tries again. When Katchoo blows her off this time, Francine explodes, determined to make Katchoo see that she's serious. It works. They scatter David's ashes and an adorable coda shows Francine & Katchoo both with little ones, living their life together, when Francine comes over and shuts the door on us. Beautiful.

Nix, Garth Abhorsen
Sabriel and Touchstone are believed dead in an assassination attempt in Ancelstierre. Lirael, Sameth, Mogget, and the Disreputable Dog are trapped in the Abhorsen's house, surrounded by the dead and Chlorr. Hedge's plans proceed apace, and Nicholas is weakened and bespelled and cannot see what Hedge is really doing. Much like book one, Nix spends a lot of time getting all of his characters into place before a slam-bang ending. Little nuggets of information about characters are enlightening, including exactly who (or what) both Mogget and the Disreputable Dog are. Not all of our friends survive the final battle, but it is a very satisfying ending nonetheless.

O'Malley, Bryan Lee Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
Volume 2 starts with some of Scott's history. Although he's totally fallen for Ramona, Scott still hasn't broken up with Knives, which is apparently a pattern for him. When he finally does, Knives refuses to believe it & blames Ramona, attacking her at the library. Scott duals Lucas Lee, Ramona's skateboarder-turned-actor ex, who kicks the crap out of Scott, then offers to tell Gideon that Scott won if he pays him. Scott's big mouth ruins that, but then he challenges Lucas to a skateboarding feat where Lucas ends up going so fast that he explodes, giving Scott the victory. We hear about Envy Adams, who dumped Scott much like Scott dumped Knives, for the guy who plays bass in her successful indie band. Todd the bass player turns out to be evil ex number 3.

Perez-Reverte, Arturo Captain Alatriste
Perez-Reverte's first book featuring Captain Diego Alatriste de Tenorio, soldier, swordsman, mercenary, and man of honor. Perez-Reverte spends a great deal of time setting the stage for future books: familiarizing us with Spanish history and culture, introducing us to characters who will clearly feature in future episodes, and, above all, painting a portrait of Captain Alatriste himself, a man not above hiring himself out as a killer, yet at his heart a man of courage and honor, willing to face the consequences of his decisions. I suspect it will be great fun to spend more time in the captain's company.

Phillips, Robert Nightshade: 20th Century Ghost Stories
Ghost stories from some authors you wouldn't expect, including John Cheever, Muriel Spark, and William Trevor. A mostly good collection of stories weakened by the editor's pontification that his collection is better than everybody else's because it contains Literary Writers, not those genre freaks, an utter lack of a sense of humor (again, fine for the hoi polloi, but not for a Serious Collection), and a messed up binding that causes a repetition of some stories and a complete skip of others (including, ironically, the editor's own story).

Salter, Sydney Swoon at Your Own Risk
Polly Martin remakes herself anew every time she gets a boyfriend: one liked cars, so she learned about cars, one was into politics, so she ran for student government. Unsurprisingly, none of these relationships have worked out, & she can't figure out why. But her grandmother, who writes an advice column under the name Miss Swoon, is coming to live with them for the summer, so Polly is determined to figure out why nobody loves her. Some funny moments, but Polly is simply not likeable enough to pull off being the clueless bitca she is through much of the book.

Shteyngart, Gary Super Sad True Love Story
In a future world where America has lost it's supremacy and online ratings of appearance and personality and credit rating are monitored by everyone, including your job and the government, Lenny Abramov is a throwback: a shlubby guy who believes in true love. He falls for Eunice Park, a young Korean girl fighting against tradition and trying to be a modern woman. It's funny and romantic and sad.

St. Onge, Cassie Jane Jones: Worst. Vampire. Ever.
All of your generic nerdy teen girl problems plus a vampire who's blood-intolerant. Turned during the Dust Bowl, Jane and her family have lived a life on the move ever since, as teenage Jane and her ten-year old brother Zach have to move on before everyone notices that they're not aging. But suddenly not one but two boys have noticed Jane, and a cure for vampirism may be possible, but it would mean leaving her family behind forever.

Stevens, Taylor The Informationist
An excellent first novel, taut and fast-moving, that introduces an utterly fascinating character: Vanessa “Michael” Monroe, adept at infiltrating questionable places and piecing together scarily accurate information about the business and political climate. She's the best, and people pay top dollar for what she does, but her skills are tied into a dark past that makes her unstable and very, very dangerous. Hired to find out if a girl missing in Africa for four years is dead or alive, just as she begins to find answers, she's attacked and left for dead. Now it's personal, as she navigates the tangled morass of African politics and culture and tries to figure out who's on her side and who has betrayed her.

Stuart, Julia The Tower, the Zoo, and the Tortoise
Take an unlikely setting, say, the Tower of London. Add in some unusual characters, like the Beefeaters who both live and work there. Now mix in a man who collects different types of rain, the Lost and Found department of the London Underground, a second Royal Menagerie on the Tower grounds, a marriage falling apart, an unexpected pregnancy, the oldest tortoise in the world, and a bearded pig who may or may not be on the loose and you've just scratched the surface of the delights in this book. Funny, sad, and chock full of historical tidbits about the Tower (some real, some made up), this delightful book is well worth a read.

VanderMeer, Jeff The Steampunk Bible
I'm still beyond tired of steampunk fiction, but this tight little bible of steampunk culture is both informative and fun. Covers fiction, movies & TV, fashion and art and presents definitions of steampunk from those involved in the culture.

Unexpectedly Awesome

2011-05-23T09:56:00.003-05:00

I read a description of Unexpectedly Milo by Matthew Dicks that sounded kind of fun: marital problems, OCD (including the need to sing "99 Luftballons"), a found video diary,and a quest to help the clearly troubled diarist.

Okay, in truth, you had me at "99 Luftballons."

Milo Slade has suffered from OCD most of his life. A childhood incident involving the need to pop a balloon impressed on him at an early age that he was irretrievably weird and would have to hide his proclivities.

He's been remarkably successful at doing so, to the point that his wife has no idea that he's OCD. But this need to hide himself away means that he hasn't really connected to his wife, who has become bored an frustrated. She begins asking for "space" and time apart but when Milo moves out while she's away, she's furious.

While at the park, Milo discovers a video camera and a bag of numbered tapes. When he watches the first tape, he discovers that it's a video diary. The making the tape believes that she's responsible for the recent of her best friend and still feels guilty about the childhood friend that she helped to run away who was never seen again.

Milo is captivated and yearns to make the on the tapes realize that it's not her fault, so he begins a quest to find the childhood friend who ran away and reunite the two.

Milo is awesome: kind, good-hearted, nerdy, and completely unable to see that he has hidden himself away from everyone in his life because of a condition that's not his fault. His quixotic quest is charming and forces him to begin to reveal his true self to others. The culmination of his quest is cathartic for all involved, and the epilogue is solid perfect.

Spend some time in Milo's company--you won't regret it.

(Matthew Dicks' Something Missing has definitely jumped to the top of my to-be-read list.)

April Reads (the Late Edition)

2011-05-12T13:31:00.000-05:00

April slowed me up pretty good, reading-wise, but I still made some progress. Sixteen books this month, bringing my total since January to 96. Huh. If I had known I was that close, I'd have tried harder to hit 100. In any event, and without further adieu, here are April's books:

Bennett, Tara Lost Encyclopedia

Fact-filled accompaniment to the TV series Lost. It's nice to have some of the connections implied in the series made explicit, and the authors try really hard to make that mess of an ending make sense. They even go along with introduction-writers Demon & Curse in pretending that There Was A Plan All Along, And It All Made Sense. There wasn't, it didn't, and Demon & Curse's smirky “If you're looking for answers, you won't find 'em here!” introduction just grates. Needed some copy-editing—lot's of sentences missing a word here or there or repeated sentences. Irritating.

Foschini, Lorenza Proust's Overcoat

Small book about a man who idolized Proust and took it upon himself to “rescue” some of Proust's works, furniture, and ephemera so that it wouldn't disappear forever. Jacques Guerin was a fascinating man, and I suspect that a full biography of him would make for good reading. This, however, was far too slight, perhaps because of my own lack of connection to Proust.

Huang, Yunte Charlie Chan: The Untold Story of the Honorable Detective and His Rendezvous with American History

There was an actual person that Charlie Chan was based on: Chang Apana, a detective in Hawaii. Yunte Huang uses the biography of Chang Apana, and the creation and enduring popularity of Charlie Chan to discuss issues of Chinese identity, both in America and in China. Fascinating, and a good read, too.

Kaczynski, Richard Perdurabo: The Life of Aleister Crowley

An exhaustively referenced biography of Aleister Crowley. Kaczynski is a true believer in Crowley's greatness. Although he doesn't shy away from Crowley's less-attractive qualities, he excuses the bad behavior as necessary for Crowley's Great Work. Crowley may not have been the Wickedest Man Alive, and he may well have gotten many a raw deal, but I'm not sure that this excuses his excesses and cruelty.

Koryta, Michael So Cold the River

The prose is lean and the story chugs right along, yet somehow Koryta's chiller didn't connect with me. The characters were fine (I mean, come on—who doesn't love a spunky senior citizen?), but in order for horror to really work, you have to connect to the characters—you have to care one way or another what happens to them, and for some reason, I just didn't.

Moore, Terry Strangers in Paradise: Tattoo

Katchoo wakes up in Vegas next to (and possibly married to) David. After a side plot where a friend of Casey's is being stalked and Katchoo beats the bejabbers out of him, David admits that he slept with Tambi. Even though he explains why, Katchoo is upset and runs. But as she's thinking over what it all means, she realizes that, even though she loves David, she'll never be in love with him, because she loves women. David is disappointed, but understands. Realizing that she's made a mess of her own life (and a few others, besides) Katchoo vows to grow up and concentrate on her art. Even when she sees Francine at an awards dinner, she sees that Francine is happy in her life with Brad, and chooses not to talk to her. It's good that both Katchoo & Francine are growing up, I suppose, but I sure wish they were doing it together.

Moore, Terry Strangers in Paradise: Love and Lies

David and Casey finally hook-up, and both are happy about it. Katchoo has some problems with it, but Casey wins her over. David & Casey conspire to reunite Francine and Katchoo, & it works. Eventually. But now Brad is cheating on Francine, David has an inoperable brain tumor, and Griffin Silver has been killed onstage. CURSE YOU TERRY MOORE! [shaking fist at sky] That said, Moore is, once again, amazing. Had you told me when I first met them that Francine's mom & Casey would be two of my favorite characters, I never would have believed you. Kudos, Mr. Moore—you deserve 'em.

Munn, Olivia Suck It, Wonder Woman!

A collection of essays from cohost of G4's Attack of the Show and self-professed geek and geek-lover Olivia Munn. A breezy, conversational style and humorous attitude make this a fast, fun read, but a bit of a jumbled one. Awesome title, though.

Murray, Paul Skippy Dies

Dennis “Skippy” Juster, a slight, geeky 14-year old boarding at a prestigious Irish school, does indeed die. Murray then shows us both what led up to that event and the aftermath of it. The characters ring true even at their most ridiculous and a painful and lonely heart beats here underneath all of the adolescent boy sex-talk. Is the universe, as one boy posits, actually made of loneliness? I don't know, but I do know we've all felt that way at one time or another.

Niffenegger, Audrey Her Fearful Symmetry

Weird and disturbing ghost story involving two sets of twins (who are way too intertwined in each other's lives), family secrets, and a unique form of body-snatching. Great characters (especially Highgate Cemetery, which really comes to life) and a story that moves right along. I'm unsure about the ending, but I'm not sure how it could have ended differently. Good read.

Nix, Garth Lirael

This continuation of the story started in Sabriel concerns the children of Sabriel & Touchstone. The older girl is set to eventually succeed her father as ruler. The boy is supposed to follow in his mother's footsteps as the Abhosen-in-Training. Unbeknownst to them all an ancient evil, a creature of Free Magic imprisoned since the beginning of their world, is about to be loosed. One of the evil's servants attacks Sameth in Ancelstierre, attempting to bind him to the dark. He fails (attacking one of Sameth's friends instead), but Sameth is traumatized, unable to even think about training as the Abhorsen. While he avoids his duty, things in the kingdom begin to fall apart. Then there's Lirael, a daughter of the Clayr who is unable to See. She hides her shame as an assistant librarian, creating the Disreputable Dog, a creature of combined Free Magic and Charter Magic, as a companion. She, too, is supremely unconfident in her abilities, & she and Sameth end up having to figure things out together. The book reads fantastically well, and the characters are terrific (I continually want to pinch Sameth's selfish head right off). However, the whole book is a long, slow build up to something that apparently happens in book 3, because book 2 just stops. Dammit.

Perry, Douglas The Girls of Murder City

You know the musical Chicago? Guess what—it's all true! Crime reporter Maurine Watkins covered the trials of some of a string of women in Chicago charged with killing a man, and watched them declared not guilty through a combination of being young and pretty and having really smart lawyers. The experience angered Watkins, and she used her formidable wit to comment on the show-biz shallowness of the whole ordeal. Fascinating read!

Roach, Mary Packing For Mars

It's official: I will read anything Mary Roach writes, and chances are I will laugh throughout. Applying the same off-the-beaten-path route to space travel that she trod so memorably (and hilariously) with Bonk, Roach asks the questions you've always wanted to know the answer to but were too polite (or embarrassed) to ask. Astronaut food, space potties, sex in space—the details about all this and more are awaiting you in Roach's charming company.

Rogan, Eugene The Arabs: A History

Thorough and fascinating history of the Arabs and, by extension, of the Middle East. In-depth, easy-to-read, and very effective.

Sandell, Laurie The Imposter's Daughter

Laurie Sandell's dad was amazing: multiple degrees, a stellar & adventurous military career, an academic teaching career that included multiple ivy league schools, and she worshiped him for it. She spent her childhood looking for his approval. But soon cracks started to appear: mail addressed to different names, strange phone calls, increasing anger and paranoia. After running into a credit problem when she'd never even had a credit card before, she began to learn that her father was a con man, and one who was willing to cheat his family as well as strangers. It's a heckuva story, and an entertaining graphic novel.

Willingham, Bill Fables 11: War and Pieces

The fables press their war against the Adversary, showing the full strategic guile of Frau Totenkinder. Charming gives up his mayoral duties to help lead the war effort and makes the ultimate sacrifice. Pinocchio returns to the fables and helps them to capture Gepetto in an effort to save his father.

March's Reads

2011-04-04T17:40:00.013-05:00

Another month, another book list. It was a slower reading month than the last two, but there were some real gems here, in particular Wendy Williams' Kraken (see purty picture at right), Sam Kean's The Disappearing Spoon, and two very different re-reads: Van Reid's utterly charming turn-of-the-century romp Cordelia Underwood, or the Marvelous Beginnings of the Moosepath League and Warren Ellis's hilariously grotesque Crooked Little Vein. Without further adieu, here are my March reads, in alphabetical order:

Anderson, Jodi Lynn Loser/Queen
Cammy is unpopular; not scorned so much as ignored. When school queen Bekka publicly humiliates her, Cammy receives a mysterious text promising to help her get revenge. As she makes use of the material given to her by the mysterious WhiteRabbit, she gets more and more popular, finally becoming one of the in crowd. Along the way she loses her best friend, breaks her grandparents' trust, and realizes that her pranks have evolved from mean-spirited to dangerous. When she refuses his next suggestion, WhiteRabbit turns on Cammy, threatening to expose her. An interesting moral dilemma and good characters, but it never quite sings.

Atwood, Margaret The Year of the Flood
While not exactly a sequel, this book is intimately connected to Oryx and Crake. Where Oryx presented the story of the scientists who killed off most of the human race, Flood is the story of some of those surviving humans dealing with the destruction that the virus caused. Fascinating characters and a lot of humor mix with the sadness, and leave us, ultimately, with hope.

Cholodenko, Gennifer Al Capone Does My Shirts
In 1935, Moose & his family move to Alcatraz where his father has taken two jobs to try and support the family while Moose's sister goes to a “special” school: Natalie is autistic. Natalie's illness (and the family's various reactions to it) completely control the family dynamics, and Moose is getting tired of a father who's never around and a mother who only seems to care about his sister. When Natalie's future is endangered, Moose calls on the only person he can think of to help: Prisoner AZ 85—Al Capone.

Ellis, Warren Crooked Little Vein
One of the funniest (and foulest) books that I've ever read, & holds up well on re-reading. Mike is a down-on-his-luck detective who attracts bizarre clients and even more bizarre cases. He's approached by a powerful politician and asked to track down a missing book: an alternate US Constitution. Things quickly go awry in the most horrifying and hilarious way possible. Not for the squeamish or easily offended.

Flanagan, Richard Wanting
Flanagan's short meditation on desire and what it brings us (as well as what thwarting it brings us) is told through the connected stories of Sir John Franklin and Charles Dickens and the emotional, spiritual, and physical ruin they caused to those they claimed to love. Devastating.

Gehrman, Jody Babe in Boyland
Nothing new plotwise: girl, seeking to understand guys, pretends to be a guy and finds out that guys are just as sensitive/communicative/civilized as girls. Hijinks ensue when girl falls in love with guy and guy's sister falls for girl-in-drag. A fast, breezy read, but not much else.

Hijuelos, Oscar Beautiful Maria of My Soul
Hijuelos returns to the characters of his novel The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love, this time telling the story of Maria, the muse who inspired Nestor Castillo's famous song. An interesting look at remembered characters and situations through new eyes, but turns far too cutesy at the end, where Hijuelos writes himself in as a character.

Hoffman, Carl The Lunatic Express
A guy who makes his living by traveling to remote or dangerous places to write about them (or the people who live there) embarks on a quest to travel the world via those methods of travel deemed most dangerous: South American buses with a history of sliding off of cliffs, Indian commuter trains so over-packed with people desperate just to get to work that there are several ways to die, Indonesian ferries over-populated and under-regulated with a disturbing tendency to sink in crocodile-infested water, etc. The story of the travels themselves and of the people Hoffman meets there are both interesting and fun. Hoffman's tendency to make the whole venture a metaphor for his own disconnected-ness, complete with whiny self-indulgence, not so much.

Hunt, Stephen The Rise of the Iron Moon

Focusing mainly on characters introduced in The Court of the Air, Hunt's third book set in the kingdom of Jackals is his riff on science fiction. The plot is just as convoluted as the other two books: aliens are attacking and wiping out the planet, so enemies must band together to fight. There's the last Queen of Jackals, an Arthur-like figure, complete with magic sword & the ability to call on long-dead warriors to save the Land, blue-skinned vegetarian aliens, & a dismissed military man who talks to a package he keeps hidden away. There's still some humor, but it disappears under the weight of the political commentary. Fun, but not as much as the previous two.

Kean, Sam The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements
Chemistry and I have a long and unpleasant history going back to my college days, so a book about chemistry that's actually informative and enjoyable is a rarity (like Oliver Sacks's Uncle Tungsten). Kean's book is not so much a history of the periodic table as a collection of odd and interesting stories about the various elements and the men and women who discovered them. Outrageous, salacious, thoughtful, and even poignant, with lots of great suggestions for further reading.

Kramon, Justin Finny
As a child, Delphine Short, aka Finny, is a force of nature—she doesn't understand her family and they don't understand her. Just after she's found Earl, a boy who does understand her, her parents find out and ship her off to boarding school. The rest of the book follows Finny from her teens to her thirties as she grows and changes and Earl comes in and out of her life. Finny is an awesome character, and spending time in her head is a treat.

Moody, Rick The Four Fingers of Death
An odd book that I just couldn't let go of. Part 1 is the introduction of Montese Crandall, who has written a novelization of the 50s horror movie The Crawling Hand. Part two is book one of that novelization, and occurs entirely before the events in the movie take place. Part 3 is the novelization of the movie itself, and then there's a brief afterword where Crandall returns. Dense, funny, baroque, gothic, satirical and at the end, surprisingly thoughtful and moving.

Moore, Terry Strangers in Paradise: David's Story
Taking a break from the Francine/Katchoo angstfest, we turn to Yousaka Takahashi, otherwise known as David Qin, and finally get his story. Running a Yakuza gang in Cali, Yousaka administers a beating to a 15-year old boy, who is rescued by his sister. When the boy later dies, Yousaka is crushed, and even though his Yakuza father gets him off for the death, Yousaka can't live with the guilt. He turns his back on the Yakuza and takes the name of David Qin as a reminder of how he wants to live his life. It's continually amazing how Moore can find these heartbreaking, just-right stories and work them in to the story we already know so seamlessly. Amazing.

Moore, Terry Strangers in Paradise: Tomorrow Now
Katchoo is trying to move past Francine and has her first big art show, which is a riotous success, including having security escort an enraged Freddie Femur out of the building. Francine's mom is outed as Mary Midnight, so she & Francine talk and actually make progress. Sara, Katchoo's disappearing model, reappears with agent Walsh and admits she's with the FBI and they're going to arrest her. Katchoo calls Tambi, who offers to turn herself in if they'll give Katchoo immunity. The government agrees, hiring Tambi & her team as an off-the-books hit squad, now working for the good guys. As Katchoo gets the news that she is finally (supposedly) safe (again), she's told that she has a visitor. She goes down to find David waiting for her. I'm really not sure how Moore is able to make this soap opera work, but work it does, painfully, hilariously, and beautifully.

Nesbo, Jo The Redbreast
Assigned to protect part of the route for the visiting US President, occasionally recovering alcoholic Harry Hole shoots a secret service agent who is not where he is supposed to be. To cover up the mess, Harry is promoted and assigned to read reports on neo-nazi gangs in Norway. He discovers that a hugely expensive sniper rifle has been brought into the country and ends up enmeshed in a convoluted saga with its roots back in WWII and those Norwegians who enlisted and fought for the Nazis. Nesbo has a real gift for character and dialogue and brilliant, damaged Harry Hole is a fine creation.

O'Malley, Bryan Lee Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life
Scott Pilgrim is 23, “between jobs,” in a band (Sex Bob-Omb!), and dating a 17-year old high school girl. But this girl keeps appearing in his dreams: Amazon.ca courier Ramona Flowers. When Scott meets Ramona in real life, he falls for her, only to find out that in order to date her, he'll have to fight her seven evil exes. O'Malley nails the geek/slacker dialogue & fuses that realism to the almost video game concept of the story seamlessly.

Perez-Reverte, Arturo The Painter of Battles
A photojournalist who specializes in images of war has given up photography for painting, moving into an old lighthouse and creating a mural of historical images of war. The subject of one of his more famous photos shows up and promises to kill him. The two discuss war and horror and humanity as the painter continues his work before eventually heading out to meet his fate. A fascinating insight into art and how to read it, as well as into horror and the human heart. Not an uplifting read, but a good one.

Rabkin, Eric S. The End of the World
A study of apocalyptic literature focusing mainly on authors generally considered to write science fiction. Some interesting stuff, but dry, dry, dry. Darned academics. Stableford's essay was the most accessible.

Reid, Van Cordelia Underwood, Or the Marvelous Beginnings of the Moosepath League
Quite simply, one of the most charming books I've ever read: funny, adventurous, and sweet. Once you've met the denizens of Edgecomb, Maine circa 1896, you'll never forget them.

Rothfuss, Patrick The Name of the Wind
This book was all the rage when it came out, and I can see why. Even with my suspicion of epic fantasy and my general irritability with “part one of some indeterminate number,” you simply can't get around the compelling voice of Kvothe, telling his own story. Truthfully, I'm surprised there haven't been calls for his head for the delay in getting out book two. Once you're under his spell, you're well and truly hooked.

Saramago, Jose The Gospel According to Jesus Christ
Saramago's gospel hits all the main stories, and presents a very human and pious Jesus, but he clearly has some issues with God. In this version, Jesus is a well-meaning dupe, the Devil is trying to help, and God is a vain, double-talking bastard who set this whole Jesus-on-the-cross up so that he would have more followers in the future. Funny in places, but pretty bleak.

VanderMeer, Jeff Monstrous Creatures
A collection of VanderMeer's non-fiction (a companion to Why Should I Cut Your Throat?) essays and reviews of/about fantastic literature. Some have been previously published, some haven't. I love seeing the process of VanderMeer's thinking about genre and about writing. He always makes me think and he often makes me laugh.

Whitty, Julia Deep Blue Home
This thematically-linked series of essays gives a simple and compelling portrait of some of the various animals that either live in the sea or rely on it for sustenance, and of what their eventual disappearance will cost us, both economically and scientifically. Whitty's sense of wonder is contagious, and it's impossible to read her words without getting caught up in them.

Williams, Wendy Kraken:The Curious, Exciting, and Slightly Disturbing Science of Squid
A lovely, easy-to-grasp overview of squid and why they are so important to us. Could it have used more pictures? Sure. Could it have talked about more types of squid? Of course. But for the author's purpose—showing us how the study of squid has directly benefited humans—she covered the right bases. Heck, she even interviews a professor from my alma mater (Dr. Purdy, for all you curious SU alums), who I had no idea was studying cuttlefish (it was regular fish when I was in school). To sum up: squid=awesome (although more pictures=awesomer).

Willingham, Bill Fables 10: The Good Prince
War plans proceed apace, but the Fables have a stronger ally than ever they knew. Flycacher, having finally remembered the horrors The Adversary wreaked on his family, vows revenge, and takes it through his purity of heart and of purpose. He raises the ghosts of all those thrown down into the Well of Souls and offers them a chance to live again if they fight for him.

February's Reads

2011-03-01T10:45:00.010-06:00

Another month has gone by, and I've been busily reading. There have been some real gems this month, especially in juvenile/young . Without further adieu (and alphabetically by author):

Masked by Lou Anders, editor

Anders' anthology about life in a world where superheroes exist is great! He chose both writers who have worked primarily in comics and those who have worked primarily in prose, and all were entertaining. For anyone who thinks comics are just silly kid stuff, read it and weep.

Blood Music by Greg Bear

A biochip designer has created cells that seem to think for themselves. When his employer orders them destroyed, he injects some into himself. The cells are, in fact, intelligent, and start physically changing Vergil, before going on to completely restructure our world. Holds up pretty well for a book I first read more than a decade ago.

The Name of This Book Is Secret by Pseudonymous Bosch

This tale of mystery, magic and adventure has a narrator who is determined not to give away The Secret who keeps inserting himself hilariously) into the narrative when he thinks the reader needs protecting. The story is fun, but the way it's told is fabulous. I can't wait to read more.

Medium Raw by Anthony Bourdain

Bourdain pontificates on food and the food industry, sparing no one. It works because Bourdain applies the same caustic honesty to his own foibles as well. He's a tremendously funny writer, and like the best food writers can describe a dish so well you find yourself craving it, even though you know you'd it.

Eighth Grade Bites: The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod Volume 01 by Heather Brewer

Too cutesy to be scary and too scary to be cute, a combination that should work, but somehow didn't. Maybe as Vlad matures the story will, too.

The Brief History of the by Kevin Brockmeier

When you die, you go to a waiting place until the last person who remembers you also dies. In alternating chapters Brockmeier tells the story of Laura Byrd, a flack for Coke struggling for survival in the Antarctic and the disparate group of people waiting to move on who are trapped by her memories of them. Thoughtful and sad, but a good read.

The Transformation of Bartholomew Fortuno by Ellen Bryson

Bartholomew Fortuno is a performer at Barnum's Museuem of Curiosities in New York. Billed as The Thinnest Man in the World, Bartholomew believes that he is a true prodigy; that his condition is a gift meant to teach people about themselves. Those who are not prodigies, those who choose their conditions, are gaffs and cheats. Fortuno's worldview takes a major shift when Barnum brings a new act aboard and Barthy falls in love. A fascinating milieu with great atmosphere.

Gregor and the Code of Claw by Suzanne Collins

Wow. Just...wow. A fabulous wrapping up of a fabulous series. Great characters that we have come to really care about face a huge threat, and they don't all survive. Collins is adept at creating well-rounded characters, with heroes not totally in the right and villains not totally bad. Collins gives a melancholy, bittersweet ending that rings true.

The Education of Hailey Kendrick by Eileen Cook

When Hailey's Mom died, her grandmother took her aside and told her she had to be a good to make things easier on her father. Since then, she's been perfect: studious, courteous, helpful, and quiet. The problem is, it hasn't helped. Her father ignores her, and her seemingly perfect boyfriend is nice, but completely passive. When her father changes her summer plans at the last minute (again), Hailey snaps and this good goes rogue. A fun read, but even the villain is fabulously wealthy and famous and the one “townie” we meet is just working to make money to attend Yale, so it's a bit hard to relate.

The Search For WondLa by Tony DiTerlizzi

A modern fable featuring Eva 9, a human raised by MUTHR, a robot, in a controlled environment who is forced to make her way in the world when her sanctuary is attacked. Some great characters and awesome illustrations by DiTerlizzi.

Sapphique by Catherine Fisher

The sequel and conclusion to Incarceron finds Finn still suffering the effects of his years imprisoned in Incarceron and Claudia beginning to doubt if Finn really is the long-missing, presumed Prince Giles. Still imprisoned, Keiro and Attia are determined to find their own way out, and the Warden is as mysterious and infuriating as always. It's a good ending: not “happy” but right.

Belly Up by Stuart Gibbs

Teddy grew up in the wilds of Africa with his primatolgist mother and his photographer father. But when war tore up the Congo, his mom took a job at FunJungle, a new animal park/research center in Texas. Teddy has the run of the place, but everything changes the day Henry the Hippo, the mean, irritable, poop-shooting mascot of the park, turns up . Henry has been ed, & it seems like everyone is trying to cover it up. So Teddy starts his own investigation, and now someone's trying to kill him, too. Exciting, great mystery, lots of neat animal facts, and a great main character make this book a real winner.

The (And Further Adventures) Of Silas Winterbottom: The Body Thief by Stephen Giles

Three kids, vain, snotty Isabella, quiet, verbally abused Adele, and sad, bent-on-revenge Milo, are called together by their dying Uncle Silas, who's rich but evil. He pits the children against one another for his inheritance, but he's got a darker plan in mind. Okay, I suppose, but I wasn't overly excited.

Worldshaker by Richard Harland

Okay, clearly steampunk is not for me, at least not when wedded to a story that's this didactic and predictable. What soars in a world like Stephen Hunt's merely clanks along here.

The Big Crunch by Pete Hautman

Two teens, June and Wes, kind of ally fall in love, then are separated when June's father gets a job hundreds of miles away. June & Wes fight to keep the relationship going through all sorts of roadblocks. Wes & June are great characters: likable but fallible and full of insecurities, and the story concludes gracefully.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney

Kinney's illustrated journal is hilarious, giving us a completely believable narrator who's far from perfect, yet ridiculously likable. The problems and personalities all seem very real, and the way things work out is generally hilarious. No wonder kids love it.

The Harvard Psychedelic Club by Don Lattin

In the early 60s at Harvard professors Timothy Leary, Richard Alpert (later Ram Dass), and Huston Smith were all experimenting in expanding human consciousness. Undergrad Andrew Weil did some experimenting himself before joining with the administration to bring Leary & Alpert down. Lattin argues that each of these men were instrumental in changing the way we view consciousness, religion, and , both for good and bad. Fascinating.

Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself by David Lipsky

This book consists of Lipsky's notes (and occasional commentary thereon) from the time he accompanied David Foster Wallace on the final leg of his book tour for Infinite Jest. It's a fascinating portrait of a young man struggling with fame, with genius, and with the depression that would eventually cause him to take his own life. Powerful and sad.

The Boyfriend List by E. Lockhart

After the worst week of all-time (lost her boyfriend, lost her best friend, lost all of her other friends, lost the lacrosse game, failed the math test, was immortalized in graffiti in the 's bathroom) 15-year old Ruby Oliver has a panic attack. Her parents send her to a shrink, who asks her to make a list of all of the boys she's ever been interested in: the Boyfriend List. The story that comes out of the list is alternately hilarious and painful as only high school can be. I can't wait to hang out with Ruby some more.

Strangers in Paradise: Heart in Hand by Terry Moore

Francine realizes that she loves Katchoo, but doesn't know if she's ready to actually make a life with her. Her waffling drives Katchoo crazy, then, just as Francine has decided to go for it, a misunderstanding drives the s apart again. AAAAAAAAARGH! I love Terry Moore, but sometimes I really him, you know?

Srangers in Paradise: Flower to Flame by Terry Moore

Francine has run home to Mom & the life Mom expects for her. Casey has convinced Katchoo to let Francine go and make a new life. Tambi is still unsuccessful in her efforts to have a child, and we discover that Katchoo's therapist is really an old Parker out for revenge. Tambi takes care of that little blip. Francine loses the baby and moves up the wedding. Katchoo finds out and crashes the wedding (hilariously putting Francine's mom in her place), but Francine sends her away. How good is Terry Moore? He told us a long time ago that this was coming, but we wanted a different scenario so badly, we let ourselves hope we'd get one. And yes, by “we” I mean “me”.

The Devil's Star by Jo Nesbo

A body is found with a red, five-pointed diamond placed under the eyelid. Soon after, a severed finger arrives at police headquarters wearing a ring boasting a red, five-pointed diamond. With a possible serial killer on the loose, the case is assigned to Harry Hole, a raging alcoholic. He's partnered with the man that he believes killed his former partner, and things go downhill from there. A twisted mystery and an unreliable main character: it just doesn't get any better than that.

Sabriel by Garth Nix

The Old Kingdom, where magic holds sway, is separated from Ancelstierre by a wall that is constantly guarded. The further you get from the wall, the less likely you are to still believe in magic. Very few denizens of the Old Kingdom come to Ancelstierre, but one who did was Sabriel. Her father, Abhorsen (a necromancer who specializes in putting the back, not raising them up), sent her to Ancelstierre to go to school. But now he's (maybe) , and Sabriel must take up his position at a time of great crisis from the Underworld. Simply fabulous. Hat tip to Staci Gray, who insisted that I read this one.

The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman

Years ago, a very rich American decided, for reasons of his own, to start an English-language newspaper in Rome. Rachman's novel is a series of inter-connected vignettes about some of the individuals affiliated with this now-declining paper. Some nice humor and some well-drawn characters made this bittersweet tale a really nice read.

The American ZigZag, Volume 1 by Van Reid, editor

Reid has re-created a turn-of-the-century journal, complete with original fiction, poetry, art, etc. It has a lot of charm, and some of the stories (I'm thinking of the one about a sentient hedge) are a real delight.

Vesper by Jeff Sampson

Shy, unimpressive teen geek Emily is suddenly dressing provocatively and capable of impressive feats of strength and agility, which is all kinds of scary/fun until she grows fur and claws. She also quickly realizes that someone is trying to kill her and others like her as she desperately tries to figure out what's going on. Some excellent internal dialogue and Emily is a fun character. Clearly book one of a series, and I'm interested in following up.

Mad Love by Suzanne Selfors

Alice is the daughter of Belinda Amorous: The Queen of Romance. Life should be easy. But Alice has a secret: her mother is not in Europe doing research; she's in a local mental hospital and most days can't even recognize her daughter. Now the publisher wants a new book or they're going to take back her advance, the hospital wants to be paid or they're going to kick Belinda out, Alice has an unrequited crush on Skateboard Guy, and some lunatic named Errol is claming to be Cupid—the actual Cupid—and wants Alice to write the story of his life with Psyche. Fun, but somehow not as fun as I expected.

The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson

Stephenson creates a world that's a fascinating melange of Victorian England, ancient China, and cyberpunk sensibility. I wish that I had read it when it came out, as I suspect the impact was diluted by all the stuff I've read in the intervening years that was influenced by Stephenson.

The Third Bear by Jeff VanderMeer

A collection of short stories full of humor, pathos, and the downright weird. There are subtle connections between the stories, and VanderMeer always bears re-reading.

The Secret History of the Mongol Queens by Jack Weatherford

Genghis Khan: warlord, conqueror, feminist? Strange, but true. Weatherford goes back to a part of the Mongol history that was literally cut out of the chronicle: the story of its queens. When Genghis was dividing up his kingdom, he didn't give it all to his incompetent sons. He married off his daughters to strategic allies with instructions for them to rule, and rule they did, better and longer than their brothers. Fascinating.

January Reads

2011-02-01T11:13:00.008-06:00

As my year-end list shows, I read a lot. A lot, a lot. So I'm going to try to post a monthly list here of the books that I've read and some descriptions and maybe some short thoughts. Let's begin with January:

Allende, Isabel Zorro

Allende fleshes out the childhood and early years of Diego de La Vega, who later became Zorro. It's an interesting character study, and the narrative voice is fun, but overall, it's rather slight.

Beamer, Amelia The Loving Dead

Zombieism is here, and it's a sexually transmitted disease. Beamer rides the metaphor of our failure to make human connections making us inhuman.

Bender, Aimee The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake

A 9-year old girl discovers the ability to read the emotions of the person who prepared any food she eats. This distances her further from a family that is already pretty distant. Her mother tries to hard to connect eventually finds a kind of happiness in a long-term affair. Her father is clueless and detached, and her brother eventually disappears completely.

Casares, Oscar Amigoland

Two brothers who haven't spoken in years (one in his 90's and one in his 70's) reconnect at the request of the younger brother's housekeeper/lover and go on a road trip to Mexico to find the truth behind a family legend.

Collins, Suzanne Gregor & the Marks of Secret

Gregor's mom is still in the Underland recovering from the plague, but while Gregor is visiting her, a new problem crops up: the Nibblers send for Luxa's help, but neither she nor anyone else can find them. The Bane has grown into a huge threat, and there's some new prophecy that no one will tell Gregor about that promises dire things for his family. Awesome story marred by utter non-ending. Clearly book 4 & book 5 are one story split in two.

Cox, Michael The Meaning of Night

An admirable attempt at a Shadow of the Wind-style bookish mystery that just falls short. I don't know if my expectations were too high (I kept waiting to find out that the narrator could not be trusted) or what, but it just didn't sing.

DiCamillo, Kate Bink & Gollie

Bink & Gollie are best friends who are very different. These three short tales celebrate the value of compromise and friendship. DiCamillo remains utterly awesome.

Fantaskey, Beth Jessica's GT Dating on the Dark Side

Jess is a somewhat-sheltered teen living on her adoptive vegan parent's organic farm when she a mysterious stranger appears who knows her real name. He is Lucius Vladescu, and he claims to be a vampire. Worse, he tells Jess that she's one, too. There's a love triangle (well, quadrangle, really), cultural difference, impending vampire wars, and the perils of high school. Some really terrific lines, but kind of plodding overall.

Franklin, Tom Hell At the Breech

If Jim Thompson wrote historical fiction, this is what it would be like: spare, bleak, hopeless, and full of shades of gray.

Hunt, Stephen The Court of the Air

Intrigue, adventure, heroes, scoundrels, living metal men, insect gods, and magic pistols that can sense evil are all part and parcel of the wonderful world that Hunt has created. A young girl from the slums is being stalked and wants to find out why. A boy who is feared and despised for powers he may or may not have goes on the run when his uncle and guardian is killed. The resolution involves all of the elements mentioned above and much, much more. Fantastic!

Jones, Shane Light Boxes

Tantalizing fable about a town enslaved by February.

Kadrey, Richard Kill the Dead

Sandman Slim returns and LA is literally going to Hell. Lucifer is topside making a movie, the Golden Vigil is acting shady, and zombies are running amok. Stark seems to be the only one who cares about any of this, but he's been bitten by a zombie and may not survive the next few days. Brutal action, funny dialogue, and a main character you can't help but root for.

Kent, Jasper Twelve

Napolean's troops march towards Moscow and someone invites a troop of twelve foreigners with a deadly reputation to fight on their behalf. The twelve are odd, but efficient. However, it soon becomes clear that all is not as it seems, and the twelve are something more (or less) than human.

Larsson, Steig The Girl Who Played With Fire

This sequel to The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo focuses on Lisbeth Salander: she's accused of murdering 3 people (1 of whom was her sexually abusive legal guardian). She disappears as her friends try to figure out what happened. We finally learn the events of When All the Evil Happened, and why Salander mistrusts authority so much. A real rocket-ride of a finish is somewhat marred by a very slow open, but ultimately, Lisbeth Salander is utterly irresistible.

Leicht, Stina Of Blood and Honey

Northern Ireland in the 70s is a war zone between protestant and catholic. Liam, in the wrong place at the wrong time, is caught up in the fight, and soon learns that there's another battle going on, too—this one between the fey and the fallen angels. The Catholic Church, having decided that anything supernatural is a demon, has spent years killing the fey, who have been trying to drive the fallen from Ireland.

Mauro, James Twilight at the World of Tomorrow

A history of the 1939 World's Fair in New York City. Just after the Depression and just before WWII New York City spent billions to host The World of Tomorrow. Fascinating personalities, huge world events, and a bomb which killed 2 policemen and seriously injured 2 more. A neat story, but overall a bit thin.

Moore, Terry Strangers in Paradise: Brave New World

Moore explores alternate endings to Katchoo & Francine's story, one where Francine chooses Brad and a normal life and one where she chooses Katchoo.

Palfrey, John Born Digital

Sociological treatise on the generation that has grown up plugged into the digital world and how the rest of us should see and deal with them. Not a scintillating read.

Perez-Reverte, Arturo The Queen of the South

Perez-Reverte's lyrical narcocorrido about a Sinaloan drug-runner's girl who has to go on the run when he's killed and ends up a powerful drug transporter in southern Spain & Morocco.

Rutkoski, Marie The Cabinet of Wonders

This fabulous blend of history and imagination introduces us to Petra, a young girl who goes on a quest to recover her father's eyes, which have been stolen by the prince. Action, adventure, subtlety, and a main character you won't be able to forget. Fabulous!

The Celestial Globe

Part two of Petra's story has Petra rescued from an attack by Dr. John Dee, who spirits her away to England. While she tries to escape Dee, she becomes involved in a murder investigation. Unbeknownst to Petra, two old friends are searching for her on a gypsy pirate ship which is searching for the Celestial Globe, a device which would allow its user to find and use secret shortcuts around the globe. Equally as fun and equally as compelling as the first.

Selfors, Suzanne Mad Love

Alice is the daughter of Belinda Amorous: The Queen of Romance. Life should be easy. But Alice has a secret: her mother is not in Europe doing research; she's in a local mental hospital and most days can't even recognize her daughter. Now the publisher wants a new book or they're going to take back her advance, the hospital wants to be paid or they're going to kick Belinda out, Alice has an unrequited crush on Skateboard Guy, and some lunatic named Errol is claming to be Cupid—the actual Cupid—and wants Alice to write the story of his life with Psyche. Fun, but somehow not as fun as I expected.

Snows, Alan Here Be Monsters!

Snows creates a charming world of boxtrolls, cabbageheads, and sentient cheese in this fun adventure chick-full of drawings by the author.

VanderMeer, Jeff Predator: South China Sea

At an island hunting resort run by former Khmer Rouge the hunters become the hunted when a predator arrives.

Viorst, Judith Lulu and the Brontosaurus

Utterly awesome story (illustrated by Lane Smith) of a spoiled little girl who wants a brontosaurus for a pet.

Late Addition to Top Reads List

2010-12-17T13:12:00.003-06:00

I just finished Stephen Hunt's The Kingdom Beyond the Waves, and it's so awesome that I had to add it to my list.

Warring countries, kingdoms that float in the air, a sentient jungle, dinosaurs, Victorian-era-esque squalor and class system, adventure, archaeology Indiana Jones-style, metal men with a voodoo religion--what isn't in this book? And somehow it all works, chugging along at a terrific pace and surprising at every turn. There's another book, The Court of the Air, already out and one, The Rise of the Iron Moon, due in March, and I can't wait to spend more time in Hunt's world.

Gifting Suggestions For the Weird (From One Who Knows)

2010-12-09T17:02:00.004-06:00

Over on Amazon's Omnivoracious blog, Jeff VanderMeer has some book suggestions for those who like their reading to be a little out there.

There's some excellent stuff on the list, so check it out!

Favorite Reads of the Year

2010-12-07T11:28:00.009-06:00

Since starting at the library last October, I've been keeping a list of the books that I've read. Through today, that list is 335 books long (counting adult, YA, and juvenile; not counting picture books). Some of them came out this year; many of them are older books that I missed for whatever reason and felt like I needed to have read. Some of them are books that I re-read, either for my book group or just because the fancy struck me.

I realize that these lists are usually neatly compiled into easily manageable numbers, but I'm not ready to do that yet, so I'm afraid you're stuck with slightly more unwieldy numbers, presented alphabetically by author:

Fiction:

Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende
Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood
The Manual of Detection by Jedidiah Berry
Await Your Reply by Dan Chaon
The Other Lands: Acacia Book 2 by David Anthony Durham
Sunnyside by Glen David Gold
The Magicians by Lev Grossman
Sandman Slim by Richard Kadrey
Under Heaven by Guy Gavriel Kay
Lisey's Story by Stephen King
Mister Slaughter by Robert R. McCammon
The City & the City by China Mieville
Kraken by China Mieville
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoat by David Mitchell
The Club Dumas by Arturo Perez-Reverte
Seeing by Jose Saramago
The Kosher Guide To Imaginary Animals by Jeff & Ann VanderMeer
The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters
Impossible Stories 2 by Zoran Zivkovic

Non-Fiction:

The Sum of Our Days by Isabel Allende
The Man Who Loved Books Too Much by Allison Hoover Bartlett
The History of the Medieval World by Susan Wise Bauer
Tears of Mermaids: The Secret Story of Pearls by Stephen G. Bloom
To Have and To Hold by Philipp Blom
The Poisoner's Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York by Deborah Blum
The Sun and the Moon: The Remarkable True Account of Hoaxers, Showmen, Dueling Journalists, and Lunar Man-Bats in Nineteenth-Century New York by Matthew Goodman
The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession by David Grann
Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History by S.C. Gwynne
The Age of Wonder: The Romantic Generation and the Discovery of the Beauty and Terror of Science by Richard Holmes
A Voyage Long and Strange: On the Trail of Vikings, Conquistadors, Lost Colonists, and Other Adventurers in Early America by Tony Horwitz
Genius on the Edge: The Bizarre Double Life of Dr. William Stewart Halsted by Gerald Imber
Anything Goes: A Bio of the Roaring Twenties by Lucy Moore
Bonk: the Curious Coupling of Science and Sex by Mary Roach
The Men Who Stare at Goats by Jon Ronson
For all the Tea in China: How England Stole the World's Favorite Drink and Changed History by Sarah Rose
Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood by Oliver Sacks
Wicked River: the Mississippi When It Last Ran Wild by Lee Sandlin
Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong by Terry Teachout
Booklife: Strategies and Survival Tips for the 21st Century Writer by Jeff VanderMeer

Juvenile/YA:

The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander
The Golden Dream of Carlo Chuchio by Lloyd Alexander
Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi
White Cat by Holly Black
24 Girls in 7 Days by Alex Bradley
Frindle by Andrew Clements
Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins
Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate Di Camillo
The Magicians's Elephant by Kate Di Camillo
Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
Beautiful Darkness by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
Will Grayson,Will Grayson by John Green & David Levithan
My Most Excellent Year: A Novel of Love, Mary Poppins, and Fenway Park by Steve Kluger
A Wrinkle in Time by Madelaine L'Engle
The Latent Powers of Dylan Fontaine by April Lurie
Hero by Perry Moore
Next to Mexico by Jennifer Nails
The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson
Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie
The Boy of a Thousand Faces by Brian Selznick
Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli
Harry Sue by Sue Stauffacher
The Prince of Mist by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
How Not To Be Popular by Jennifer Ziegler

Re-reads:

Brittle Innings by Michael Bishop
The Decapitated Chicken and Other Stories by Horacio Quiroga
Blindness by Jose Saramago
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Graphic Novels:

The Stuff of Legend: Book 1: The Dark by Mike Raicht and Brian Smith
Bone: the Complete Cartoon Epic in One Volume by Jeff Smith
Tales of Outer Suburbia by Shaun Tan
Blankets by Craig Thompson
Fables: March of the Wooden Soldiers by Bill Willingham

Anthologies:

Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse by John Joseph Adams
Stories: All-New Tales by Neil Gaiman and Al Sarrantonio
Dark at Heart by Joe R. lansdale and Karen Lansdale
Son of Retro Pulp Tales by Joe R. Lansdale and Keith Lansdale

A Needle In a Haystack

2010-10-24T20:39:00.004-05:00

I tend to skip around a lot in my reading. Anything that catches my eye is likely to end up on my list, regardless of topic. So I've been thinking about just what it is that's likely to catch my eye. The book To Have and to Hold: An Intimate History of Collectors and Collecting does it just right.

Firstly, it's pretty. Just look at it: it's interesting, it's a bit creepy, and it's completly appropriate for the topic of the book. Once the cover has seduced me into picking up the book, I take a look at the back cover. The description sounds interesting, and as a bonus, it has a nice quote from an author who I've read and enjoyed (in this case, Jenny Uglow, author of )The Lunar Men: Five Friends Whose Curiosity Changed the World).

So now I open the book and take a look at the table of contents: The Dragon and the Tartar Lamb, The Mastadon and the Taxonomy of Memory, This Curious Old Gentleman, Why Boiling People is Wrong, Three Flying Du...wait, what? Why Boiling People is Wrong? You've got me; I'm in. I've just got to know the answer to that question, so onto my reading list it goes.

How about you? What catches your eye when browsing for books? How do you find something new? What makes you pick up a book from an author you've never heard of or on a subject you normally wouldn't be interested in?

Highs and Lows

2010-08-31T13:28:00.004-05:00

This last weekend was ArmadilloCon 32 up in Austin. This weekend was my first vacation in 2 years, and I had a great time seeing friends, visiting some favorite haunts, and petting all of the pretty, pretty books in the dealer's room. But as fun as all that was, this isn't a blog post about ArmadilloCon.

You see, when I got home Sunday afternoon, my key wouldn't work in my door. I called the 2 people who have keys to the house to see if they had been in and they had not. So I called the police and headed around to the front door to check things out there. Although you couldn't really tell at first because the screen door was closed, the front door was standing wide open--kicked in.

I waited for the officer to arrive and went through the house, which had been ransacked: boxes opened and dumped, closets gone through, drawers pulled and dropped on the floor. Apparently there's been a rash of similar robberies around town (not that you'd know that from reading either of the small papers that report on this area), and it was just my turn.

The list of missing things is random: knick-knacks, some liquor, a new TV that was a gift from my brother & his family, and some paintings.

It's the paintings that really get me.

They took a portrait of my great grandmother (she's the fiercely impressive lady pictured above). They took a picture that was painted by my mother. They took 2 pictures that I painted (2 of the 3 I ever painted). How do you replace something like that?

All in all, I'm grateful that the thieves weren't wantonly destructive. I know that no one is going to steal my books (unless they belong to my book group, and rest assured, I'm watching all of you), but they could easily have damaged them and they didn't. I'm also meanly pleased that they had to work really hard going through closets and boxes and drawers for very little payoff, given that most thieves aren't interested in matching tablecloths for parties, old sheet music, and embroidery accouterments unused in at least 30 years.

But I'm also left wondering: how do you make your house yours again?

Calling All Book Nerds

2010-05-21T09:33:00.004-05:00

Tipping the monetary scales at a mere £195.00, the Oxford Press announces The Oxford Companion to the Book, a 2 volume history covering all aspects of the book from ancient times through today.

Do I understand the irony of a really big book about books? Yes, I do. Do I want to fondle this book all the same? So much that my palms itch.

Electron Boy Lives!

2010-04-30T20:53:00.004-05:00

13-year old Erik Martin, living with liver cancer, always wanted to be a superhero. The Make-A-Wish Foundation and a whole bunch of other people get together to make his dream come true.

Behold Electron Boy!

Breaking the Rules

2010-04-20T17:41:00.007-05:00

When you write fiction, you're told that your plot and characters have to be grounded in reality for your readers to connect to them. People aren't perfect, so your characters have to have flaws and obstacles or no one will buy what you're selling. What they don't tell you is the caveat: all the rules apply until they don't, and if you're really good you can make up your own rules as you go along.

Steve Kluger is that good.

I read Last Days of Summer years ago, and enjoyed it immensely. Kluger's story of a headstrong young boy and his relationship with his idol, a seriously cranky ballplayer, was funny and poignant. Epistolary novels are tough to pull off, but Kluger does it beautifully. I loved the book, wrote a staff selection card for it at the bookstore, and recommended it as much as I could.

But as is often the way, I eventually got distracted by other books and Kluger kind of slipped my mind.

So when I was doing some research on recommended reading lists for kids, it took me a minute to put together the Steve Kluger who wrote Last Days with the recommended book My Most Excellent Year: A Novel of Love, Mary Poppins, and Fenway Park. But once my brain finally kicked in, I put in my inter-library loan request and waited.

I can't tell you how glad I am that I did.

Once you've met these characters, you won't want to put them down. I laughed out loud countless times and totally irritated various friends by forcing them to listen while I read parts of the book out loud to them. The dialog is snappy and the pacing is great, but it's the characters that you'll want to hang on to: TC, whose mom died when he was six, but not before teaching him the importance of magic and dreams; Augie, TC's brother (by mutual decision, ratified by all parents), who loves musicals and old movies and hasn't yet realized that he's gay; Ale, smart as a whip, but who worries about disappointing her father (a retired ambassador) if she follows her true love of dance and the theatre; and Hucky, a six-year old kid who's deaf and fully believes that someday Mary Poppins is going to come and live with him. And I haven't even mentioned the grown-ups, who are just as fun to spend time with.

As in Last Days, the action unfolds entirely in letters, emails, and diaries, and again, it works perfectly. Is it believable? Certainly not. These kids are too perfect, and things work out way too easily. Does it matter? Certainly not, because these kids will absolutely charm the socks right off you, and sometimes that's more than enough.

So thanks for the reminder, Mr. Kluger--I won't forget you again.

Reading Karma

2010-04-14T09:40:00.005-05:00

I believe there is such a thing as reading karma. If you read widely and whimsically, picking up things that just sound interesting at the time, you will be rewarded when, seemingly out of the blue, something that you wouldn't have known if not for reading that book or article will be needed, either to answer a question or to enhance your understanding of something.

It happens to me all the time.

Most recently, I read an article about the discovery of the deepest known volcanic vent ever discovered. I have an interest in the ocean, especially the deep ocean, and black smokers are incredibly cool. Karma comes in with the arrival of a book called Sea Legs: Tales of a Woman Oceanographer. Imagine my delight upon reading the book to discover that Kathleen Crane was one of the people who discovered the existence of undersea volcanic vents in the first place.

Sea Legs is really episodes from Crane's life: how she came to study oceanography, her education and experiences as a woman in a predominately male field, the importance of oceanography to world climate and environmental health, and the politics and prejudices that make it difficult or even impossible for oceanographers, especially women oceanographers, to do their jobs. Fascinating stuff.

So cast your nets widely, my friends--you never know when a little bit of knowledge will come in handy.

Burning Your Boats

2010-04-09T15:17:00.002-05:00

I'm currently ensconced deep in Burning Your Boats, the collected short fiction of fabulist Angela Carter.

Many short story collections are easy reads—quick tasty bites easily enjoyed and easily finished. Carter's stories are not easy. Her stories defy a cursory reading and demand attention. Her lush language and fecund imagery entangle the reader, forcing a languid pace and a dreamy sensibility. When you read her stories, you're surrounded by excess—the sweet scent of jungle flowers turned cloying, covering up the underlying odor of rot and decay.

You'll meet familiar characters and storylines, but these are not your mother's fairy tales. Loss of innocence is a major theme, both innocence carelessly given and innocence cruelly taken. Sexuality and eroticism is rampant, as is a kind of desperate tenderness. There is blood and violence aplenty, and a notion that we are animals at heart, giving the most unthinkable actions a patina of inevitability and sometimes terrible beauty.

Carter is able to re-work familiar stories into something new and uniquely her own, adding layers of emotion and meaning. There's simply no mistaking an Angela Carter story for anybody else's. She weaves an ornate tapestry that, if sometimes overdone in places, is nevertheless a masterpiece of decorative skill.

Minds Both Melded and Blown

2010-04-07T15:41:00.003-05:00

SF Signal has a regular feature they call the Mind Meld, where they pose a question to a number of people in the SF community and post all of the answers. Their most recent question: What are some of your favorite genre crossovers? You can find my answer (and a host of others I'm totally jealous I didn't think of) here.

You can also follow the ongoing Lost conversation between me and fellow geek Mark Finn over on RevolutionSF, including our thoughts on last week's "The Package."

Weekend Book-O-Rama

2010-04-05T14:27:00.006-05:00

Between an extra day off on Friday and a slight, non-serious illness, I broke the book bank this weekend.

I read Sugar Rush and The Bermudez Triangle, two YA books about lesbian first love. Neither had particularly happy endings, but both were fast-paced and had a strong sense of humor, and despite the endings, both featured characters coming to terms with their sexuality and being okay with it, which was good to see.

I read Margo Lanagan's novel Tender Morsels, a gripping and somewhat disturbing YA fantasy novel about growing up and living your own life. It's got some tough scenes, but a good message about how a completely protected life isn't a real life.

Sarah Waters's The Little Stranger is a ghost story in the mold of Henry James's The Turn of the Screw or Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House where we can never be quite sure if the malevolent presence is real or psychological.

Await Your Reply by Dan Chaon is a brilliant novel about identity theft and, unsurprisingly, identity itself. Multiple storylines weave together to form a Pulp-Fiction-esque tapestry of interwoven characters.

And finally I feasted on Allison Hoover Bartlett's The Man Who Loved Books Too Much, the true story of John Gilkey, who has stolen thousands of dollars worth of rare books. Gilkey is a fascinating character, but Bartlett's peek into the world of rare book dealers and collectors is equally fascinating.

Contest! Creators of Kosher Guide to Imaginary Animals Want Your Recipes

2010-03-30T10:44:00.004-05:00

Do you make a mean chupacabra challah? Are you renowned for your Loch Ness latkes? We want your recipes! To mark the release of Ann and Jeff VanderMeer’s The Kosher Guide to Imaginary Animals, Tachyon Publications is asking for your best take on kosher cryptozoological cuisine.

Of course we won’t take your recipes and give you nothing in return. We’ve got prizes, bubele. On April 30 We’ll select the five best recipes and send their authors signed copies of The Kosher Guide to Imaginary Animals.

Visit www.kosherimaginaryanimals.com to learn more about the book and how to submit your recipe.

MORE ABOUT THE KOSHER GUIDE TO IMAGINARY ANIMALS:

The Kosher Guide to Imaginary Animals
by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer
 Hardcover / 96 pp. / April 2010 / $11.95 / 978-1-892391-92-6  Foreword by Joseph Nigg  Cover and interior Design by John Coulthart   Featuring Duff Goldman, star of Ace of Cakes, the Food Network's hit reality TV show.

A perfect gift book, this sumptuously illustrated and whimsically bite-sized bestiary is the definitive – in fact only - guide to the kosherness (kashrut) of imaginary animals. It is an undomesticated romp from A to Z, including E. T., hobbits, Mongolian Death Worms, and the elusive chupacabra. This fantastical journey embarks upon a hilariously contentious debate between the alter-ego of acclaimed fantasist Jeff VanderMeer (a.k.a. Evil Monkey), and his editor/collaborator wife Ann VanderMeer (Steampunk, The New Weird). Once and for all burning questions passed down through the ages will be addressed, such as: Is a vegetable-lamb a vegetable or a lamb? Does licking the Pope make you trayf? What exactly is a Pollo Maligno? Does a Sasquatch taste stringy?   As featured on Boing Boing and Jewcy.com and brought to you by the same creative team that gave you The Thackery T. Lambshead Pocket Guide to Eccentric and Discredited Diseases, this irreverent abecedary is the must-have present for anyone seeking to broaden their imaginary culinary experiences guilt-free.

Here's an example from the book to get you started. When you’re ready, send your recipe to kosher@tachyonpublications.com.

Recipe for: Grilled Mongolian Death Worm Maki
Recipe from: The Kosher Guide to Imaginary Animals
Serves: 6

4-5 lbs of Mongolian Death Worm meat
2 cups Sushi Rice
2-3 Nori sheets (seaweed wraps)
1 Cucumber, sliced into long, thin strips
Fresh Mango, diced
Pickled Daikon
Wasabi
(Note: you will need a bamboo sushi mat to roll the sushi)

First, you will need to de-electrify the creature. The best way to do this is to zap it with a taser (and ignore it of it says "Don't tase me, bro." It is NOT your bro). If you don't have a taser (and why don't you? It's a dangerous world out there, bubele), you can use static electricity. Simply put on a pair of pantyhose and walk across a carpet, making sure your legs are as close together as possible. Once you've built up enough, touch the thing and hopefully you will see sparks. (Note: this second method is very dangerous. We recommend instead that you just go out and buy a taser.)

Soak it in salt water overnight (this will kill any of the acid residue, we trust). Grill the Mongolian Death Worm in soy sauce until it is nice and tender - there is no way you want to eat this stuff raw. You will notice that the meat shrinks up, which is why you must start with such a large amount in order to have enough once it is cooked. Then cut into small pieces. Place the nori sheet on the bamboo sushi-mat. Spread the rice on top of the nori, not too thick, leaving about an inch on the top and bottom of the nori without any rice. Place a strip of cucumber across the rice, then place the mango and Mongolian Death Worm meat across as well. Make sure the left and right sides are even. Slowly roll up the nori from the bottom. you will have a nice, firm sushi roll. Cut into pieces. Serve with sake (preferably chilled), and the daikon and wasabi on the side.

Catching Up

2010-03-29T09:21:00.004-05:00

I finally finished the Chronicles of Prydain, and am just as blown away. I'll try and pull together some more coherent thoughts, but right now I'm left with "Wow."

I also finished Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book, and I have to say, the man has a knack for kids books that are great for kids and adults alike.

Friends at the elementary school where I read to kids suggested that I give Margaret Peterson Haddix a try, so I picked up Double Identity, which is about a teen suddenly taken to live with an aunt she never knew about where she discovers that she had an older sister that died. As she digs into the story, some surprising revelations come to light. It was quite good--I'll be looking for more by Haddix.

Because I really do sometimes read adult books, and because I loved A Voyage Long and Strange, I picked up Tony Horwitz's Confederates in the Attic. I know that many have found it funny, and Horwitz really does have an excellent sense of humor, but I found it more depressing than anything else.

This feeling was only reinforced when I followed up with Mildred Taylor's Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. It's a great book, but a very sad one about a black family during the Depression whose three kids learn exactly what it means to be black in the South at that time.

I also gave Donald E. Pease's mini-biography Theodore SUESS Geisel a try. It was all right, but I prefer the more fleshed-out Dr. Seuss and Mr. Geisel by Judith and Neil Morgan. Pease is an academic, and his discussions of the Seuss books in lit-crit terms literally sucks the magic right out of them.

I'm currently reading Stephen G. Bloom's Tears of Mermaids: The Secret Story of Pearls and enjoying it, and after that I have Kelly Link's Pretty Monsters, Cory Doctorow's Little Brother, David Carkeet's From Away, and Lisa Grunwald's The Irresitible Henry House to look forward to.

Those of you who are following the saga can find Mark Finn's and my discussion of last week's Lost episode "Ab Aeterno" here on RevolutionSF.com.

Short-n-Sweet

2010-03-23T15:42:00.004-05:00

If you're looking to get a little Lost fix before tonight's episode, you can catch up on some of my ideas and questions about last week's episode here at RevolutionSF.com.

As for my reading, my inter-library loan books are taking a bit of time to get here, so I've contented myself with Susan Cooper's The Boggart, E.L. Konigsburg's From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, and Tony Horwitz's Confederates in the Attic (there were a couple of others, but these were the highlights).

I'm currently enjoying Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book, and I'll tell you all about it when I'm done.

Checking In

2010-03-16T13:02:00.006-05:00

Since last we spoke, I've finished Boneshaker, Real Unreal: The Best American Fantasy 3, and Sandman Slim and am working on reviews. I have been on an amazing reading run recently with a spate of truly excellent books. God bless inter-library loan, without which the pickings would be much, much slimmer.

I'm back to reading juvenile fiction at the moment as I wait for my next shipment of library books, and again I'm running into some really good books that I really should have read long before now.

Christopher Paul Curtis's Bud, Not Buddy is a marvel. This story of a depression-era orphan searching for the man he believes to be his father really sings, largely because of Curtis's gift with character.

Bud Calloway is only ten years old, but circumstances have forced him to grow up quickly. With the life he has led: no father, mother dying when he was six, life in the orphanage and in various foster homes, he could easily have turned sullen and bitter or even violent. Instead he's become tough and self-sufficient and remarkably resilient.

Curtis is equally adept with his other characters, from the kind librarian who remembers which books Bud used to like when he came in with his mother to Lefty Lewis, the Pullman porter who picks Bud up by the side of the road and takes him to meet the man he believes is his father. Even characters who are only present for a few pages are memorable and ring true.

The same could be said of Kate DiCamillo's bittersweet Because of Winn-Dixie. Like Bud Calloway, India Opal Buloni is 10 years old. She and her father, a preacher, have been abandoned by her mother, and her father has just moved them to a new town where Opal doesn't know anybody and is lonely. While on a shopping trip for dinner, Opal meets a huge, mangy, stinky, exciteable dog who smiles at her and wins her heart. Through her friendship with Winn-Dixie (named for the store he was running amok in when they met), Opal is able to reconnect with her father and make new friends, finding a kind of family.

DiCamillo's books (I've also read The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane and The Tale of Despereaux) are full of adventure and humor, but there's always a thread of melancholy which adds depth and richness to the story.

Can't Stop the Reading

2010-03-12T09:58:00.006-06:00

My reviews of Blackout and The Magicians are both live now over on RevolutionSF.com.

I finished Mieville's The City & the City and loved it. It's not Bas Lag or New Crobuzon or even Un Lun Dun, but it was never intended to be. It's stripped down, like a good noir thriller should be, full of mood and atmosphere and mystery.

I also finished a kids book by Suzanne Collins called Gregor the Overlander, which I was unfamiliar with (it's book one in a series called The Underland Chroncicles). It was a fast-paced adventure, with some terrific characters. It's impossible not to fall in love with Boots, and I never would have believed that I would be touched by the humble selflessness of a four-foot roach.

I've started both Boneshaker and The Best American Fantasy 3, and I have Richard Kadrey's Sandman Slim waiting in the wings.

Happy 5th Anniversary, Pyr!

2010-03-09T13:04:00.005-06:00

It's hard to believe, but acclaimed and award-winning imprint Pyr has been around for five years already. To celebrate their 5th anniversary, they're sponsoring a contest which emphasizes three of the things they hold dear: creative and powerful writing, a passion for reading genre fiction, and this year's special number, five.

Pyr is inviting readers to submit a short essay on this theme:

Five reasons why fantasy and science fiction is important to you

Elegibility Rules (Any essays that do not meet these guidelines will be disqualified):

1. Entrants must reside in the Continental United States and be at least 21 years of age.
2. Essays must be no longer than 1500 words.
3. Essays must be emailed to publicity@prometheusbooks.com as a Word document attachment, with the subject line “Pyr and Dragons Adventure Essay Submission.”
4. The body of the submission email must clearly identify the entrant’s full name, address (within the Continental United States), phone number and email address.
5. All submissions must be received between April 1, 2010 and June 1, 2010.

A complete list of rules and regulations can be found at PyrSF.com

All eligible essays will be read and reviewed by publishing staff at Prometheus Books. Not all of these preliminary readers will be science fiction and fantasy fans, so outstanding essays will likely be those that pique their interest in the genre and make them want to read it too. The top twenty-five essays as determined by these industry professionals will be read by Pyr Editorial Director Lou Anders, who will select the top three.

The writer of the Third Place essay will win a commemorative Pyr 5th anniversary keepsake and five complimentary books of their choice from the Pyr catalog.

The writer of the Second Place essay will win a complete set of Pyr books as published by the contest end date of June 1, 2010 (one copy of each title, without duplicating those that appear in more than one binding) and a commemorative Pyr 5th anniversary keepsake.

The Grand Prize Winner will embark on a “Pyr and Dragons Adventure” that includes:

* A round-trip flight to Atlanta, GA during Dragon*Con, one of the largest multi-media, popular culture convention focusing on science fiction and fantasy,gaming, comics, literature, art, music, and film in the US. Dragon*Con 2010 will be held September 3 - 6, 2010 (Labor Day weekend).
* Two nights hotel accommodation in Atlanta, GA, Sept. 3 and 4, 2010.
* Dragon*Con membership/entry badge.
* Dinner with Special Pyr Author Guests and Pyr Editorial Director Lou Anders
—details to be announced!

The grand prize winning essay will be posted at the Pyr-o-mania blog, and may be promoted by the publisher by other means, including but not limited to their other blogs, websites, e-newsletters and social networking pages.

"Go to Hell, I'm Reading"

2010-03-09T10:41:00.005-06:00

My discussion with Mark Finn (@finnswake, for you twitter peeps) about last week's Lost episode Sundown is now live at RevolutionSF.com.

I've turned in my review of Connie Willis's Blackout, which I both really liked and was incredibly frustrated with, and I'll post the link when it goes live.

I just finished reading Lev Grossman's The Magicians, which deserves every bit of the praise that's been heaped upon it, and I'm currently working on China Mieville's The City and the City (which is terrific so far). Next in line is Cherie Priest's Boneshaker and The Best American Fantasy 3, edited by Kevin Brockmeier.

The image up top is from a t-shirt available at the amazing Murder by the Book bookstore in Houston. If you're in the neighborhood, look 'em up. If you're not, try to get there--it's well worth the trip.

Busy Week

2010-03-08T08:58:00.002-06:00

Along with my recent review of Dawn of the Dreadfuls, I have two other reviews live at RevolutionSF.com.

One is my review of The Other Lands, the second book in David Anthony Durham's Acacia trilogy, which I enjoyed a great deal despite it being book two, inevitably the most troublesome book in any given trilogy.

The other is of Peter Straub's latest, A Dark Matter, which was equally enjoyable in a totally different way. If you enjoy books featuring unreliable characters or whose point is less "what happened" than "how did what happened effect us" then you're in for a treat. As a bonus, we also have an interview with Straub, conducted by Derek A. Johnson.

Coming soon is the latest installment in my ongoing Lost discussion with Mark Finn and a review of Connie Willis's Blackout.

Lost Thoughts

2010-03-03T18:13:00.011-06:00

Those of you who may be missing Mark Finn and I obsessing about Lost every week can find our thoughts over at RevolutionSF.com:

LA X

What Kate Does

The Substitute

The Lighthouse

All-Out-Worldwide-Zombie-Blog-Explosion 2010

2010-03-02T21:13:00.009-06:00

Some months ago, I picked up a book called Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Honestly, I didn't expect much. I figured it was a one-joke project; a funny title and not much else.

I was wrong.

Using mostly Austen's original words, Steve Hockensmith grafted a zombie subplot onto a romantic classic, and amazingly, it worked. So when the folks at Quirk Classics asked if I wanted an early look at Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls, I jumped at the chance.

You can read my review of Dawn of the Dreadfuls on RevolutionSF.com, but if you want to read the book for yourself, the good folks at Quirk are having a little giveaway, and all you have to do to enter is go here to QuirkClassics.com and mention this blog to be entered.

The 50 prize packs that they're giving away all include:

An advance copy of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls

Audio books of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters

A password redeemable online for sample audio chapters of Dawn of the Dreadfuls

An awesome Dawn of the Dreadfuls poster

A Pride and Prejudice and Zombies journal

A box set of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies postcards

The Book of Three

2010-02-23T14:18:00.004-06:00

In my continuing series of entries about kids books I no doubt should have read before but somehow never did, I give you Lloyd Alexander's The Book of Three.

One of the perils of growing up reading in a small town peopled largely by non-readers is that there's no one to tell you about stuff like this. I had never heard of Alexander until Disney's The Black Cauldron, which was released the year after I graduated high school and which held no interest for me.

I never went back to see what I missed—I was too busy reading stuff for classes and, if memory serves, buckets of horror stories. Clearly, I was too grown up to read kids books (I'll pause here for all of my friends and every teacher I ever had to stop laughing).

Even though I heard these books mentioned as “classics” when I worked in bookstores, somehow they just never caught my attention. Which is a terrible shame, because as much as I enjoyed reading the book today, as a kid, I would have been over the moon.

Alexander's take off of Welsh mythology is staggeringly good: adventurous, scary, sad, and funny. It's everything I ever looked for in a book as a kid, and the formula works quite well for me still today. Sure, some of the tropes (lowborn boy with big ambition, kids who are more than they seem, ultimate good versus ultimate evil, magical weapons that only work for their rightful owners) are now so overused they don't carry the same weight. But if everything else is good enough: the story, the characters, the way the story is told, then the book sings, regardless of how familiar you might be with those tropes.

If you like tales of knights, magicians, good, evil, and hidden power, check out this opening chapter in the adventures of Taran of Caer Dalben, Assistant Pig Keeper of a most unusual pig named Hen Wen.

Frindle

2010-02-03T17:28:00.003-06:00

Books are magical things, but sometimes that magic can be a little shaky, especially for books aimed at kids. If you read the book as a kid, the magic will work and you'll fall in love with the story and that will be one of your favorite childhood memories. But if you missed it as a kid and try to go back and fill in the gaps as an adult, or even if you pick up a childhood favorite you haven't read since you were small, you may find that you're no longer able to suspend disbelief the way you were as a kid. Plot holes jump out at you, or the story itself or the language used to tell it is so simple it can't hold your interest. But if you're lucky, the book is good enough and your disbelief-suspending muscles are strong enough that the magic still works.

While going through the kids books at the library, I saw a book called Things Not Seen by Andrew Clements. It sounded interesting—teenager wakes up invisible, tries to both live with it and figure out why—so I checked it out and gave it a try. It was a good book: well-written, believable characters helping to make an impossible plot-line plausible. So I poked around to see if we had anything else by Clements, and as it turns out, we did. I looked at the available titles and picked up the one that sounded the most interesting: Frindle.

Frindle is the story of fifth grader Nick Allen, a smart kid with lots of ideas, and Mrs. Granger, the language arts teacher who loves the dictionary. They collide when Nick learns how dictionaries came about and invents a new word; instead of a pen, he now uses a frindle. Everyone starts using the word, Mrs. Granger starts punishing those who do, and the whole thing grows way beyond anything Nick ever expected.

It's a really quick read--fast and funny. Clements has a gift for capturing the worldview and speech patterns of elementary school kids. Nick is a great character: smart and funny and believable. Mrs. Granger shines, too—instantly recognizable, a little intimidating, and ultimately delightful.

Clements does an excellent job in making neither Nick nor Mrs. Granger the villain of the story. Kids will respond to Nick's big ideas, and adults (especially bookish adults) will respond to Mrs. Granger's love of words and her fierce dedication to their importance.

A Few More Kids Books of Note

2010-01-25T15:04:00.005-06:00

I'm still going through the library and trying to catch up on things I probably should have already read, but I haven't for one reason or another. Because one of our focuses is encouraging kids to read, I've been spending some time with kids books, from picture books to YA, so that I have recommendations when people come in. They're not all new, but they are to me, so maybe they are to you, too.

We all think more kids reading is a good thing, so when something like Harry Potter comes along, we embrace it hope to get kids hooked so hooked on it that they continue to read either between volumes or even after the series ends. The current must-read is Stephenie Meyer's Twilight saga, and if you or someone you know has read all of Meyer's books and is not-so-patiently awaiting the next installment, do them a favor and recommend Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl's Beautiful Creatures.

Beautiful Creatures is the story of star-crossed lovers, a terrible curse, and their modern-day descendents. It's about family and loss and destiny and has enough paranormal activity and teen romance angst to satisfy the most ardent Twilight-er. It's also really well-written, starting off with a terrific prologue and never letting up from there. There's a host of new books hoping too latch on to the paranormal trend, and this is an excellent place to start.

Carl Hiaasen is a popular and successful adult writer, famous for his Florida settings, humorous characters, and strong belief in the conservation of those few remaining wild spots in Florida. Unsurprisingly, his first YA book, Hoot, is set in Florida, has humorous characters, and has a strong, anti-development/pro-conservation message. It is also, and I apologize in advance for this, a hoot and a half to read.

Hoot tells the story of Roy Eberhardt, recently moved to Florida from Montana. Roy is a smart, well-adjusted kid, able to make friends in new places and deal with bullies(and recognize when further dealing is pointless). While being attacked by a bully on the bus, Roy sees a kid, about his own age, running down the street wearing no shoes. He becomes curious about this mysterious boy and tries to track him down, managing to run into the school's tough girl and get knocked out by a flying golf ball in the process.

While Roy tries to find out more about the kid, we meet the foreman of a construction crew planning to build a Mother Paula's Pancake House on a vacant lot, who's having some problems with survey stakes being pulled up, leading to construction delays while everything is re-surveyed. He reports this officer Delinko, who agrees to try and catch the vandals. Instead, he dozes off and the culprit spraypaints the windows of his patrol car black and goes on about his business. In the process of these fiascos, we learn that small Burrowing Owls have made their home on the vacant lot, and that Mother Paula's is adamantly denying their existence.

These two threads come together in a story that's both funny and thought-provoking and which is well worth a read.

Many things can lead me to pick up a book, but I am a total sucker for a sense of humor. So when I come across a book titled Next to Mexico whose cover carries the tagline “Two countries. Two girls. One Tuba.” I know I've got to see what that's all about. And what that's all about is Lylice (pronounced like Phyllis) Martin, one of the most irrepressible and charming narrators I've run across.

Lylice has just been skipped from 4th grade straight to 6th. She's dealing with a new school and a new principal who she's convinced is out to get her. She is also assigned to be the English Buddy for a new student recently arrived from south of the border named Mexico Mendoza. Lylice and Mexico become fast friends, and this friendship helps them get through school troubles like cliques, mean girls, crushes on boys, bad boys who maybe aren't so bad, budget cuts, protests, and detention, as well as family troubles like separation from family, diabetes, unemployment, and alcoholism.

Lylice is hilarious, and there are some great messages here about friendship, loyalty, and standing up for what's right. Plus tubas are inherently funny. They just are.

Childhood Magic

2010-01-22T13:27:00.004-06:00

I have a special place in my heart for books that feature a kid who reads and loves books. Any story that extols reading is aces in my book, but those that encourage and celebrate it for kids are especially fine. Since one of my duties is going up to the local elementary school and reading to the pre-K through 3rd grade kids, I've been spending a lot of time reading kids books (everything from picture books to YA) to find new stuff to share. I've been lucky enough to find some real gems, some old favorites that hold up well and some new finds that more people should be familiar with.

How long has it been since you read Madeline L'Engel's classic A Wrinkle in Time? Trust me, friend, that's too long. L'Engel's story of some special kids who band together to rescue their missing father is a stunner. A Wrinkle in Time has lost none of its power to amaze and enthrall. It's funny, heartbreaking, and pure magic.

How about Roald Dahl's Matilda? Dahl is a master of stories with all of the magic and humor and cruelty of childhood left intact. Mean headmistresses, awful parents, a kind teacher, and a very special girl combine for a tale of neglect and special powers that only Dahl could tell.

More recent but no less worthy is Gail Carson Levine's Ella Enchanted, which is a great take on Cinderella with a fabulous teen protagonist and a lot of humor. Girls especially will identify with the smart, funny, and very competent Ella.

On another level entirely is Marcus Zusak's extraordianary The Book Thief. The story of Liesel Meminger's life in Nazi Germany is narrated by Death himself and is a testament to the power of books to help us through hard times.

But perhaps the bookiest book of all is Cornelia Funke's amazing Inkheart. The story of a man (who binds and repairs books by trade) who reads aloud so well that he actually brings forth characters from the book he's reading and the book-loving daughter who tries to save him is so saturated by a love of books and reading that it practically drips from the pages.

So please, folks, give these books a try, or even better, share them with someone you know who can't get enough of the written word.

A Friendly Word of Warning

2010-01-21T12:26:00.003-06:00

Even if, for some odd reason, you should be searching for a book about giant carnivorous crabs rampaging through Scotland, by all that is holy do not pick up this one and give it a read.

Or any of its sequels.

Not that I've read them, or anything, because I would never...I mean, well...I just thought...damn.

(Thanks to Rick for the link to I Was A Bronze Age Boy.)

Geek With (Lots of) Books

2009-09-01T13:16:00.004-05:00

My good friend Scott Cupp has just started a new column over at SF Signal. Scott's a writer, an avid reader, and has been a book collector since 1967. He's even co-owned a bookstore (bastard!). If you like books, you'll love listening to what Scott has to say. So head on over and say "Howdy" (and tell him he's not getting his Whittemore's back, no way, no how):

Geek With (Lots of) Books

Soundtrack of My Life: The Ultra-Lounge Version

2009-07-11T22:48:00.003-05:00

I'm sure you've all seen the meme, so here's my personal soundtrack, keeping the randomness, but limiting the choices to these 5 albums from the Ultra Lounge series (Clicking on song titles will get you at least a snippet of the song in question):

1) V17 - Bongoland
2) V8 - Cocktail Capers
3) V7 - Crime Scene
4) V4 - Bachelor Pad Royale
5) V1 - Mondo Exotica

Opening Credits:
Voodoo Dreams/Voodoo - Les Baxter
See? I already like this movie: spooky, mysterious, light jungle drums, a hint of lounge-lizardy cool.

Waking Up:
Latin Fever - Jack Costanzo
For the record, I am never this peppy waking up, but the latin bongos do call to mind the coffee machine and the frenetic pace echoes the caffeine buzz to come.

First Day at School:
Big Town - Laurindo Almeida & the Danzeneros
A director with a sense of humor! Apparently my first day of school will be shot as noir, with me as the world-weary P.I. If you're unfamiliar with the song, think of Who Framed Roger Rabbit and the sad, smoky song playing when Eddie Valiant thought about his dead brother.

Falling in Love:
Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang - Elliot Fisher
Well, at least the director is thematically consistent, and the portrayal of a sweet, awkward childhood moment as a suave seduction is pretty damn funny.

Losing Virginity:
Harlem Nocturne - Spike Jones New Band
Hee! Speaking of putting a cool, suave gloss on an awkward situation. I like this director--he's funny.

Fight Song:
The Young Savages - Martin Denny
Just the right mix of menace, cool, and goofiness. I would totally watch this movie.

Break Up:
Moderna Muchacha - Joe Loco
Clearly, we're playing this scene for laughs. I think I'm in a 60s sex comedy!

Prom:
Hey! Bellboy! - Gloria Wood
I am definitely in a 60s sex comedy.

Life:
Walk on the Wild Side - Si Zentner
If this were more bouncy and less bluesy, I'd suspect that I was Austin Powers.

Mental Breakdown:
This Could be the Start of Something - Dave Pell
This is such a jaunty breakdown, I'm tempted to think I've gotten a little pharmaceutical assistance.

Driving:
Hypnotique - Martin Denny
Bongos, recorders, a sitar -- I definitely shouldn't be driving. See speculation above.

Flashback:
Man With the Golden Arm - Billy May
How nice! A drug-fueled 60s sex comedy flashback of the noir movie this started out to be.

Getting Back Together:
Odd Job Man/I Wanna Be a James Bond Girl - Leroy Holmes
The tune: jaunty, jazzy with a bright horn section confirms that this is a happy reunion. The title of the song confirms the Austin Powers-y theme of the movie.

Wedding:
Bali Ha'i - Tak Shindo
On it's own, not out of place at a wedding. This version? Well, let's just say the pharmaceutical assistance is back--perhaps my hunny-bunny is not all that he appears?

Birth of Child:
Mission Impossible - Billy May
I...I...I'm at a loss for words. Suffice to say, in the movie we've seen so far, I bet this scene is hilarious.

Final Battle:
The Girfriend of the Whirling Dervish - Martin Denny
Hee! A farcical final battle full of slamming doors, mistaken identities, and, apparently, dancing girls.

Death Scene:
Melancholy Serenade - King Curtis
Awww. I'm dead. It's kind of sad, but the music is so very, very sad that it makes me believe things may not be what they seem.

Funeral Song:
Caravan - Dick Hyman
We're back in whirling dervish-land, and although somber, there's clearly some kind of bait & switch with the coffins. And given that interlude, my hunny-bunny turns out to love me after all.

Hmm.
End Credits:
Wimoweh - Yma Sumac
You might be more familiar with the Tokens version: The Lion Sleeps Tonight. But this version is odder and much much cooler. Frankly, if Yma Sumac is not in my soundtrack, I don't want to listen.

I would totally watch this movie again!

I Want A Grenade!

2009-06-04T21:53:00.003-05:00

I only wish I were cool enough to have a chance at this, but maybe you are:

CONTEST: Are You An Agent of Chaos?

Have you ever struck a blow for anarchy? Done something surreal just because it felt good and they couldn't stop you? Crossed the border just to say you had? Stuck your gun somewhere you shouldn't've? Been chased across countries while trying to remember who you are? Okay, so that last one is the novel "Chaos" by the hot Dutch writing couple Escober, but you get the point. Tell us about the biggest thing you ever done to spread "chaos" and we'll enter you in a drawing for a one-of-a-kind gift pack featuring our new book "Chaos", plus:

A military issue map bag containing:

(1) compass with sighting mirror

(1) copy of the U.S. Army's Guerilla Warfare and Special Forces Ops field guide

(1) beret

(1) grenade (deactivated - you think we're crazy?)

(1) pair of leather bootlaces

(1) camouflage T-shirt, suitable for disappearing without a trace

Send your story of complete chaos to deepeight@live.com before June 30, 2009 to enter.

About Chaos:

Chaos

by Escober

Now Available from Underland Press

a heart-stopping psychological thriller, in English for the first time.

ISBN: 978-0-9802260-3-4 $13.95

When British soldier alex Fisher returns home from his tour in Bosnia, he’s plagued by blackouts, recurring nightmares, and uncontrollable acts of violence. Escaping to Mexico, he sets off on a globetrotting tour in an attempt to distance himself from the demons in his head. a chance meeting with a mysterious woman introduces Fisher to a far more passionate—and far more dangerous—life. With his grip on reality slipping, Fisher’s demons return in full force, awakening a flood of suppressed memories. as he attempts to sort through his complicated and half-remembered past, Fisher discovers that the truth is harder to accept than the lies.

The Return of The Cat In The Hat (with apologies to Dr. Seuss)

2009-04-01T00:15:00.003-05:00

It was April in Texas
And too hot to play.
So we sat in the house
whiling hours away,
doing nothing much, really,
'cause just yesterday
our parents had taken our TV away.

No video games, cable,
no Pokemon either--
our parents declared it
a "cultural breather."
They said all that stuff
was too much to afford,
so Sally and I sat there
bored,
bored,
bored,
BORED!

We both heard the BUMP.
We both knew that sound.
The Cat in the Hat
was now hanging around.
He was sure to cause trouble,
get into our hair,
but Sally and I,
well, we just didn't care.

"Hello there, you two,"
said the tall skinny cat.
"Why don't we go play?"
said the Cat in the Hat.

We looked at him glumly
and made no reply
except for the small sound
of Sally's soft sigh:
"It's too hot outside
to have any fun.
It's too hot to walk out there,
much less to run.
In here there's no TV.
There's nothing to do.
No one could have fun today.
Not even you."

The Cat chuckled low
and said, "Don't be too sure.
For your lack of excitement,
I might have the cure.
How about an adventure?
I know of a place
where a famous detective
is out on a case.
He's trying to track down
the Baskerville hound.
The game is afoot.
Shall we follow around?

Should sleuthing not suit you,
we could go, instead,
to the sea,
and a ship full of pirates most dread.
We'll meet young Jim Hawkins
and have hours of pleasure
as he and the pirates
both search for the treasure.

Are pirates too scary?
We could take a stroll
with a small girl named Alice
down a large rabbit hole.
We'll meet a Red Queen,
a Mock Turtle and more.
Just drink from this bottle
and step through this small door.

Or perhaps you're the type
who like dragons and elves.
If that sounds like fun,
then prepare yourselves.
We'll visit a place
that is called Middle-Earth,
and meet Frodo and Sam
as they both prove their worth.

"Can you really do that?"
Sally asked the sly Cat.
"Of course I can, Sally,
as easy as that."
And the Cat crossed the room
to our family's bookshelf
and he said, "You don't need me,
you could go there yourself.

Every book's an adventure,
a new place to see,
full of people like you two,
and even like me!
Just open the pages
and you can set sail
to wonderous places
off of little-known trails.

The more that you do this
the more you will find
that you're getting quite good
at expanding your mind.
And here is a secret
that I'll share with you:
your mind, like your body,
needs exercise, too.

And now I must go,"
said our friend the Cat
as he stood at the door
and adjusted his hat.
"You can find magic
wherever you look.
Sit back and relax,
all you need is a book."

Texas Writers Saved My Life

2009-03-11T10:10:00.004-05:00

Okay; maybe I’m exaggerating a bit. I was in grad school in Newark, New Jersey (Don’t ask.), and I was lonely and homesick. I went to a bookstore and saw a book with “Texas” on the cover: The Drive-In, by Joe R. Lansdale. I opened the book, and I was home again — a pretty weird version of home, I admit, but recognizable all the same.

From that point on, I actively sought out Texas authors, starting with those who set their stories in Texas, and eventually exploring other times and places as well. I went on a cattle drive with Gus and Call and Larry McMurtry (Lonesome Dove). I ran through Dallas in an alcoholic haze with Russell Murray and Neal Barrett, Jr., chased by a little old lady with a pillbox hat and an Uzi (Pink Vodka Blues). I was attacked by a rabid squirrel in Laborde with Hap and Leonard and Joe R. Lansdale (Bad Chili). I worked in a print shop in Austin alongside zombies, Cthulhu cultists, and William Browning Spencer (Resume With Monsters). I explored the mind of a serial killer with Mary Willis Walker (Red Scream). I romanced a moon goddess with Brad Denton (Lunatics). I investigated a murder in the court of King Tut with Lord Meren and Lynda S. Robinson (Murder in the Place of Anubis), and I visited countless possible futures with Bruce Sterling and Michael Moorcock (Schismatrix Plus and (Dancers at the End of Time).

These folks, both the imaginary and the real, have always been there for me, whether I needed a laugh or a good puzzle or a short, sharp, shock. I finally have a chance to thank them, in the best way I know how: by introducing them to you. So please, click around on Amazon or Google, or take a trip to your local bookstore and look around a bit. I’d like you to meet some friends of mine.

Obsession

2009-02-13T19:19:00.003-06:00

I’ve always been a “pattern” reader; i.e., read one type of book, a mystery, say, and then read nothing but mysteries until something else catches my eye. That’s why I was so confused by my recent reading—there didn’t seem to be a connection from book to book at all. Thankfully, I’ve come up with a theory (some might call it a rationalization) to explain my somewhat peculiar reading habits: Literature of Obsession. Think about it. Midnight in the Garden of Good & Evil? Obsessive. The Orchid Thief? Obsessive. Orchid Fever, Tulipomania, A Rum Affair, The Arcanum—all about obsessive people. On the other hand, there are books like The Search for the Giant Squid and Trilobite! Eyewitness to Evolution, wherein a subject that does not normally have mass appeal becomes popular because the author is so crazy about it you just get caught up in the frenzy.

For me, the book that started it all is Midnight in the Garden of Good & Evil. The book is technically about a murder in Savannah, Georgia and the subsequent trial of a local art dealer. But what made the book so fascinating is its portrait of the colorful residents of Savannah. How could I not be charmed by the old gentleman who walked the invisible dog every day? Or the raconteur who broke into people’s houses to host massive parties? Or the ineffable, irrepressible Lady Chablis? The murder trial was the least memorable thing about the book.

The same holds true for The Orchid Thief. The particular crime the book is ostensibly about is interesting enough: someone on trial for removing orchids from a reservation claiming he’s not guilty because Native Americans did the actual removing, and they’re allowed to. But just like Susan Orlean, I became fascinated by the orchid subculture. Some people just plain lose their minds where orchids are concerned. In fact, I became so intrigued by these people and their orchid obsessions that I picked up Eric Hansen’s Orchid Fever. To my surprise, Orlean hadn’t even scratched the surface of the weirdness of orchid folk. Plus, this book has one of the funniest opening passages I have ever read; do not read it while drinking.

Next up was Tulipomania, about the Dutch tulip frenzy in the mid-1600’s. Dash’s book gives a very thorough overview of a time when a tulip bulb (i.e., something which had not bloomed yet, might never bloom, and might not be the bloom that was promised) was worth prices up to 3 times an average person’s yearly income. My spate of flower-related reading eventually led me to A Rum Affair: A True Story of Botanical Fraud. This story of a possible botanical fraud (and a fairly recent one, at that) was rendered utterly fascinating, largely due to the wit and style of Karl Sabbagh.

Not into flowers? How about porcelain? Did you know that for centuries, only Asian countries knew the secret of creating porcelain? Neither did I, until I happened upon Janet Gleeson’s The Arcanum: The Extraordinary True Story. Gleeson’s book tells the story of a self-proclaimed alchemist, who convinced a king that he could turn lead into gold. Unable to duplicate his initial “success,” the alchemist was imprisoned until such time as he made good on his claims. He was never able to turn lead into gold, but he did stumble upon the recipe for porcelain. The kicker is that he never really got out of prison—although happy to profit from the sudden fashion for porcelain, the king never forgave the erstwhile alchemist for not turning lead into gold.

I could go on and on about books in this vein: Brunelleschi’s Dome: How A Renaissance Genius Reinvented Architecture, Longitude: The True Story of the Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time, Mauve: How One Man Invented A Color That Changed the World (You can invent colors? Who knew?), The Island of Lost Maps, Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea, The Professor & the Madman, The Scents of Eden: A History of the Spice Trade, Nathaniel’s Nutmeg, etc., all centered around obsessive personalities. But there’s a second kind of obsession that catches my eye as well—folks who are so entranced by their subject matter that you get drawn in to topics you might not ordinarily be interested in.

For me, the master of this is Richard Ellis. If you’ve read my other columns or (heaven help you) had to listen to me in person, you know how obsessed I’ve become with The Search For the Giant Squid. The idea that we know this giant creature exists but have only recently (like, in the last year) seen one thriving in its own environment is a continual fascination to me. But my oceanic obsession actually began with an earlier Ellis book: Deep Atlantic: Life, Death, and Exploration in the Abyss. I picked it up because the white-on-black drawings of the deep-sea creepy critters looked cool. I finished it because Ellis made the story so compelling. Then when I saw the squid book, I had to have it.

I was similarly affected by Richard Fortey’s Trilobite! Eyewitness to Evolution. I had heard of trilobites, and the cover was kind of cool, so I figured I’d give the book a try. I didn’t expect it to fascinate me. I didn’t expect that I wouldn’t want to put it down. In short, I didn’t expect Richard Fortey. The man is nuts about trilobites. Dotty. Giddy. And darned if I didn’t get all caught up in it, to the point of staff selections and columns like this. Similar books would be Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World, Time: Its Origin, Its Enigma, Its History, A Fish Caught in Time: The Search for the Coelacanth, Absinthe: History in a Bottle, and Buried Alive! The Terrifying History of Our Most Primal Fear.

The kicker is that all of these books have proven relatively popular, at least when I was in bookstores. I mean, I’ve read most of them (and covet the rest of them), but as we established earlier, I’m somewhat peculiar. What’s interesting is how many other folks are attracted to obsession. Are you a kindred spirit? Have you read and enjoyed one of these books, but didn’t know where to go next? I hope you’ll check out some of these other books. If you do, drop me a line and let me know what you think.

Why Peggy Can't Do Math

2009-02-12T04:18:00.007-06:00

In many ways, I’m a typical English major. I wear glasses. I am nerdy and bookish, and I hang out with equally bookish folks. We can talk about books, authors, and even grammar for hours. I am always in the middle of at least one book, and I get nervous if I’m stuck somewhere without a book to read. Heaven forbid I have an overlong stoplight and nothing to occupy my time. I attended college and even graduate school. I can express myself verbally or in writing with relative ease. I am not unintelligent. And yet, when faced with the prospect of doing any math other than simple addition or subtraction, my heart races and my palms get sweaty.

Math has always been my personal bugaboo. I’ve never been good at it, despite my best efforts. Algebra? Geometry? Calculus? I might just as well have been studying Old Testament Greek. In fact, I did study Old Testament Greek in college, and it was much less frustrating than math. I studied the word problems. I did my homework. I tried, dammit, and yet I’ve never caught on. But I think I finally figured out why. All of the available space in my brain that was set aside for math has been taken up with essentially useless trivia I got from books.

For example, I know that “cavy” is what folks in South America call a guinea pig, and that some folk think they’re good eatin’. Why do I know this? Because I read about it in one of Patrick O’Brian’s seafaring novels. Was it a major plot point? Nope. Does it have any relevance to my own life? Nope. And yet, there that information sits, taking up valuable calculating space in my brain.

Who ran MGM studios when Louis B. Mayer was gone? Readers of Gore Vidal’s inimitable duo of Myra Breckenridge and Myron would know the name Dore Schare. (They’d also have the name of Byron “Whizzer” White embedded in the “sine, cosine, tangent” area of their brain, albeit with connotations that cannot be discussed in a family web column.)

Do you ever get the feeling that “they” are watching you? That someone is out to get you? That the Government just might not be your friend? You must have been reading Robert Anton Wilson. If not for works like The Illuminatus Trilogy, I might never be able to distinguish between the Illuminati and the Bavarian Illuminati (or the Freemasons, the Bilderbergers, and so on). The question of whether or not I ever have been or will be called upon to make that distinction is left as an exercise for the reader.

Does the name Oscar “Zeta” Acosta mean anything to you? If not, I’ll bet you don’t have any trouble with fractions. However, we math-impaired folks recognize that name as the legendary “Brown Buffalo,” the attorney flying across the desert higher than Mount Everest in the company of gonzo madman Dr. Hunter S. Thompson in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

Did you know that the giant squid has the largest eye in the animal kingdom? Yep, even bigger than a whale’s. Their eyes are the size of dinner plates, at least according to The Search for the Giant Squid by Richard Ellis. Is there ever a chance that I will need to know that? Barring an unexpected appearance on Jeopardy, I think not.

Granted, it’s not just book facts overloading my receptors. I’m pretty sure my lack of any ability to figure out percentages can be traced directly to my ability to recognize and in most cases sing along to a staggering variety of TV theme songs and show tunes. Various rude and inappropriate lines to be shouted at a movie screen playing Rocky Horror are, in fact, so deeply hardwired in that solving for x can’t even find an open spot to attach to. Instead that information comes in, scrabbles madly for a purchase, then slips off screaming, to land in a heap with all of the other algebraic equations I’ve attempted to learn through the years. Perhaps my friends have a point: if you're stalking a wild game of Trivial Pursuit, I'm your gal. Just don't come a-knockin' at tax time.

Cephalopod Love

2009-02-08T14:10:00.005-06:00

You just don't mess with an octopus in love:

The Last Temptation of Hurley, or Hugo Reyes and the Hotpocket of Doom

2009-01-26T18:59:00.016-06:00

Peggy: I am officially calling for these episodes to be re-titled "Poor Hurley."

Mark: Yeah, Hurley's being pulled like saltwater taffy, isn't he?

Peggy: It was epic in its awesomeness. Seriously, there was soooooomuch to love here: Hurley's on-point description of everything we've seen so far, nevertheless coming off sounding just as crazy as it does when we try to explain it a non-believer; Hugo's mom: "I believe you, Hugo." And Jorge Garcia's facial expression as Ben took him up on the mountaintop and promised him the world: no more lying, no more crazy, those you love safe, rescuing those left behind, and all you gotta do is kneel down and worship me. DAMN that was fine.

Mark: Why do people keep trying to mess with Sayid? Haven't they seen ANY of the previous shows?

Peggy: Not only can he snap necks with his ankles of steel, dude's DISHWASHER is lethal. What do you think caused the falling out between Sayid & Ben? Simple growing mistrust or something more? I'd love to believe that Ben was behind Nadia's murder & Sayid found out, but I just can't jigger the timeline to make it happen.

I love Hurley & Sayid pulling out of the gas station as Kate & Aaron were pulling in--a flashback-style interaction in the...flashpresent? Damn, but that's going to be a) confusing and b) difficult to talk about.

And how very Hurley that, despite his angry words to Sayid aboard the Searcher, he not only helps Sayid, but trusts him over Ben, who's telling Hurley they're going to do exactly as he wanted to do anyway.

Mark: At any other time in the show's history, Sayid's "do the opposite" advice would have served Hurley in good stead. Now, though, it just puts him at odds with what the ISLAND said he shouldn't do (and how about THAT li'l cameo? And that tossaway line? "Libby says Hi.") I love this show!

Peggy: That cameo was, I swear, put in specifically for me, just so that, right as I launched into a loud, self-righteous, oh, of COURSE they can bring Michelle Rodriguez back despite all her real-world drama, but not Cynthia Watros, oh NOOOOOOOoooo, they could shut me right up with "Libby says Hi". Reason number infinity why I am Lost's bitch.

Mark: Cathy correctly deduced that the island was being moved temporally, rather than physically. I hadn't counted on the complexity of the issue, though. If this whole season is one big time travel mystery that weaves in and out of the past five seasons, I will consider this to be the most brilliant show on television.

Peggy: The TWOP folks pointed out Locke's suspiciously gimpy leg when showing Femi's plane to Boone, God's Friggin' Gift To Humanity. Now, I simply refuse to believe that Ethan shooting Locke in the leg was planned way back in Season 1, but I could certainly believe that TPTB looked back at Season 1 & wrote this scene with the previous one in mind.

Mark: Cathy is predicting that Jin is alive, as well as Michael. For that to happen, there would have to have been some time travel shenanigans to pull them off the boat before it went blooey. We'll see.

Peggy: I suspect we'll see Jin, and maybe Michael, but I don't know whether they'll be alive. But the chronology has now kind of caught up with Taller Ghost Walt, so Walt will probably turn out to be the teenage son that Jeremy Bentham had. Do Walt, Desmond, & Lapidus count in the whole everyone has to come back to the island thing?

And while we're on that, are they even really supposed to go back to the island? Richard says Locke has to die to save the island, not the people on it, and while Ben has certainly proven loyal to the island, he has a, shall we say disregard for the lives anyone who he doesn't feel is integral to the island's health. Do we trust Creepy!Island Claire & Christian when they say that Aaron on the island is exactly where he is supposed to be, or Shadowy!California Claire who warns Kate not to take Aaron back? Was Ana Lucia right when she told Hurley to not get arrested? Is his defiance of Ben a major mistake? I hope not, because I love Hugo. But it's an interesting conundrum: is the enemy of my enemy my friend? Of course we know that Ben is a lying liar who lies, but we still don't know if he's right or wrong. I love that.

Mark: Loved the Faraday cameo at the beginning of the show. So, we're going to see him go into the engine of the island, I think. But, riddle me this, Batman: if the guy said we shouldn't poke a hole in the rock, for fear of the energy getting out and "god help us all", isn't that what Ben did in the last episode of last season? Blow a hole in the wall to get to the big dial? So, we're at "God help us all" now, with the island in flux, right?

Peggy: Or it will be "God help us all" in that seemingly arbitrary 70 hours. Daniel has clearly jumped around in time enabling him to write the Magic Journal of Answers. They seem to go out of their way to imply that he doesn't read ahead (he's always shocked by what he reads), but both reading ahead & being unstuck in time certainly explain his mental state & crying jag when we first met him. He sees the news of 815 being found and some part of him realizes that it's all starting (and apparently can't be changed. Unless you talk to Desmond and he does something, which apparently counts as Desmond breaking the rules, not you.). I love that they make such a huge point of there being Rules for all this time travel stuff, then instantly say," oh, except for that guy."

So much coolness:

The one-liners:

It points north, John.

Why is there a dead Pakistani on my couch?

You're someone who makes the hard choices, Kate.

Libby says Hi.

Maybe if you ate more comfort food, you wouldn't, like, kill people all the time.

The theories:

the whispers we always hear are the voices of the unstuck in time (via TWOP)

the island didn't move, the vector to reach it did, & when it did, the island went back to being invisible to everyone outside of the loop (via TWOP)

Did pushing the button have something to do with keeping the island anchored to one particular place & time? (via TWOP)

How far in the past was that opening? Long enough for Candle's baby to be Miles? It's been implied that Charlotte was previously on the island, and we know that Daniel has, so if Miles has, too, what about Lapidus? (or, according to the fabulous Norman Conquest at TWOP, "I assume that Miles will grow up to become Pierre Chang/Marvin Candle et al. Aaron grows up to become Frank Lapidus. Charlotte grows up to become Miss Hawking. Ji Yeong grows up to become Chang's wife (explains the resemblance to Sun, no?) And Daniel Faraday is his own grandpa..." Heh.)

The moments:

Hurley's dad watching Expose, Nikki's old show.

An Abbadon sighting!

A Vincent sighting!

Rose & Bernard (Neil soooo deserved that. Snapping at Rose? Not on my watch, Frogurt.)

And Neil handing Sawyer his red shirt then promptly dying? Priceless.

Flaming arrows. Who shoots flaming arrows (and do they have anything to do with the Arrow or Flame Dharma stations? or pirates from a land-locked pirate ship?)?

Who tries to cut Juliet's hand off? Dharma? Rousseau's crazy crew? Widmore?
Random crazy military guys?

Scary Time Travel Prophecy Lady returns, and may be Daniel's mom (does this mean it's okay for Des & Penny to be together now, since he pushed the button & saved the world, or does this signal yet another wrench in Des & Penny's story?).

Sun & Kate's scene. I love Scary!Sun, and totally think she sent the goons, knowing that Kate would respond by running away. I think it's significant that she asked if Kate would do anything to keep Aaron, not keep Aaron safe. And using Jin's death like that? Dirty, dirty, dirty pool, and completely awesome.

And still to come, Smokey! And Desmond-spawn! I can't wait!

Mark: I am stoked about this new season!

Lost Musings

2009-01-21T23:31:00.007-06:00

I've just watched the season premiere of Lost, and it was epic in its awesomeness. But while I digest which parts I really want to talk about (The Last Temptation of Hurley, or Hugo Reyes & the Hotpocket of Doom), I had a more general thought.

I read a couple of message boards, and I follow the Lost threads at Television Without Pity pretty faithfully during the season. There are some terrific theories to be found there, and, bless their hearts, they do a lot of the heavy lifting of finding screencaps or catching tidbits that I missed to help further my discussions with Mark. But sometimes you see a post along the lines of "God, I hate how [character X] was acting tonight. It was totally off-base," and this response:"Well, [producer, writer, or showrunner of the moment] created that character, so they would know best. It's their character, not yours."

I see the logic of this, I really do. But as a semi-recovered Xena fan who had some serious issues with how that all went down, I think I have to disagree.

On the one hand, yes, of course, they created that character out of whatever font such creations come from. The character would not exist without them, and would not be the same character if someone else had created it. And if these creations were hermetically sealed in that mythological mayonnaise jar on Funk & Wagnall's porch, I wouldn't have a leg to stand on here.

But they're not sealed away. They've been set loose on their own, for better or worse, and that's how we encounter them. Think about it. If a different actor played the part, it would be a different character. If a different writer wrote that episode, it would be a different character (the difference might be minute, but it would be there). If a different director directed that episode, it would be a different character. Is it too much of a leap to posit that we, the audience, have a claim on these characters, too? After all, with a different audience, there would be different feedback, and the plot & characters would spin off in a different way.

And Lost in particular caters to their audience. They tease and drop hints in places only the truly rabid would notice. They create real-world games to amuse the faithful in the off-season. They interact with fans via email, blogs, videos, and message boards. And I believe that this interaction has an influence, however small, on the final product. Remember Nikki & Paolo? Remember the awful attempts to ret-con them into the show's mythology? TPTB may deny it, but when it was clear that Nikki & Paolo were a terrible mis-step, they were summarily 86'd via an arachnid ex machina so ridiculous it was never referred to again.

Now don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that my take on Character X is right and its creator's is wrong. But I am saying that other interpretations of the events of the show and how the characters carry them forward have some validity, and we have every right to spit nails if, say Demon & Curse keep saying things like, "Jack is the man Kate should be with; he'd be good for her," or if Libby disappears off the face of the earth with no explanation of her connection to Hurley or if Rousseau is killed after promises of backstory but before any backstory is given.

The showrunners have the final say on how the events will turn out. We can't control that. But we can certainly look at that final product and make our own decisions about what it all means, even if our conclusions don't always agree with theirs. The beauty of Lost is that it encourages and expects a level of participation from its audience, and that's one of the reasons I keep coming back, even when characters or events or creator commentary infuriate me.

Random Interlude

2008-10-30T22:26:00.003-05:00

So I'm driving in to work today, and as I hit the area of 183 & I35, I am suddenly surrounded by brown. I felt like I had driven into the middle of The Italian Job with Coopers no longer very Mini. I counted 22 trucks before I gave up. So tell me, Austin, what's up with the Running of the UPS Trucks?

Life Out of Balance

2008-10-26T17:52:00.009-05:00

As I mentioned a few posts back, I've started a new job. It's not something I ever thought I would be doing, but I'm having a great time so far. Of course, part of that is the thrill of simply having a job to go to again--being unemployed sucks. Part of it is lucking into a great office situation; it's always nice to actually enjoy the people you have to spend 8-9 hours a day with, especially in an office with under ten people. But there's another part, too, which is a much bigger deal than I realized: being back in Austin, at least part time.

It's not that I don't love Kenedy. I grew up here, after all. Kenedy is the home of my heart: it's my memories and my history. I fit in here because I know how things work. I know the community, and they know me and we all make allowances because of it. But Austin, Austin is the home of my spirit. I fit in there because there are people like me--people with similar views and hobbies and backgrounds. There's a shared cultural history here that's very different than the one I share with Kenedy.

I don't mean that one is any better than the other, just that my life seems much more balanced when I have both. And what am I doing with my newly-rediscovered balance, you ask? Well, reading more, for one thing. A friend recommended that I take a look at Tobias S. Buckell's Sly Mongoose, a Caribbean-flavored, Aztec-infused space opera. With zombies.

Not only was this my first book-length Buckell, it's the third book set in the same universe. This can be a huge disadvantage. Since I am completely unfamiliar with the previous works, there has to be enough detail to get me oriented in this universe. Take that a step too far and what should be a fairly fast-moving storyline (this is Space Opera with zombies, after all) bogs down.
Luckily, Buckell neatly avoids both traps. I'm sure I would have gotten more out of this book had I read the previous two, but Sly Mongoose stands pretty well on its own.

One of the things I really liked about the book was it's cast of characters. It's not just that they're well-drawn or sympathetic (although they are), it's that they're multi-cultural, with aspirations and motivations drawn from that culture as well as circumstance. For a genre so concerned with epic stories and galactic scale, the descriptions of human culture remain distressingly homogeneous. Authors that make their extrapolations from more varied cultures like Buckell or Chris Roberson really are a breath of fresh air in a genre that can feel rote and stale.

And from the epic scope of Buckell's space opera, I moved to the goofy farce of John Scalzi's Agent to the Stars. This was Scalzi's "starter novel;" the novel he wrote to prove to himself & others that he could really write a novel. He posted it online for free, asking readers who enjoyed it to send him a dollar. Over the years, he actually made $4000. The good folks at Subterranean Press came calling & published a limited edition, which sold out. Now the folks at Tor have brought it out in an exceedingly snappy trade paperback, making this, The Little Practice Novel That Could.

It's not Great Literature, but it was never intended to be. What it is is a fantastically quick, fun read with characters it's a real pleasure to spend time with. The dialogue is snappy, the plot really moves, and if you enjoyed Scalzi's The Android's Dream, you'll be pleased to see another race that communicates by smell, albeit a much less stuffy and insufferable one.

So let's see here: two homes, one familiar that feeds my heart, one dynamic that feeds my spirit, and two books, one epic in scale and intent, one tight and endearingly goofy. Sure, I could just stick with one or the other, but what fun would that be? A little balance is a good thing. A really, really good thing. And that ridiculously long commute I have? Really not so ridiculous after all when you look at the bigger picture.

The Writing Class

2008-10-01T21:20:00.002-05:00

My return to the ranks of the working poor has also meant the return of my reading jones. I've burned through Tattoo Blues (a quick, fun read in the Hiaasen mode, featuring a farting manatee and the immortal phrase "lesbian clam pirate"), Liz Williams' second Inspector Chen novel, The Demon & the City (I read them all out of order, but this is a great detective series set in a world where Chinese mythology is real), and both Darkly Dreaming Dexter and Dearly Devoted Dexter (I hate to say it, but the series is better). But my favorite recent read is Jincy Willett's The Writing Class.

Firstly, a confession: I've never taken a writing class. But I know a lot of people who have both taken them and taught them, so I do have some passing familiarity with the beast. Clearly Willett knows some of the same people, because she's got it nailed. The teacher, Amy Gallup, is a woman who was published in her 20's then watched her career slowly fade away. She's cynical, out of shape, and borderline agoraphobic. The students will be instantly familiar if you've spent time around writers, from the serious students to the student with an over-developed sense of self-importance to the students just there to meet someone. But the best part is, as familiar as all of these characters are, Willett takes her time fleshing them out and giving them some reality beyond the stereotypes.

Now add The Stalker, one of the group who starts by making cruel comments on others' papers and escalates into nasty practical jokes and then murder, and you've got a great story. Will they figure out who the Stalker is? Will they be forced to perform someone's terrifically bad play? Will Amy be able to overcome her fears in time to save her life? Will her dog ever actually like her? You'll have to read it to find out, and the answers are well worth it.

Amy Gallup is certainly the heart of this book, and I really liked her. She's smart and clever and a good teacher, but she has some real, albeit understandable, problems. Watching her wrestle with her demons was inspiring, and she also made me laugh out loud.

So spend some time with Amy Gallup and The Writing Class; I think you'll enjoy the coursework.

R.I.P. David Foster Wallace

2008-09-16T00:10:00.005-05:00

I was deeply saddened to learn that author and teacher David Foster Wallace had taken his own life. He had a unique way of looking at the world, and it's depressing to think that I'll never see something through his eyes again. It's sad when anyone leaves us before their time. But when they're someone who actually managed to communicate their unique way of looking at the world to others, the loss of that voice is a tragedy.

He wrote some terrific non-fiction pieces, and his collections A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again, Brief Interviews With Hideous Men, and Consider the Lobster are well worth a look. When he took on politics, you got the fervor and anger of a Raoul Duke combined with the vocabulary of Gore Vidal.

But like many, when I think of David Foster Wallace, I think of The Infinite Jest. People loved to take potshots at Jest, and goodness knows, I've taken a few myself: huge, sprawling, confusing, disjointed, self-indulgent. The thing is, all of that stuff is true--it is all of that and more. But it's also sharp, funny, satirical, intricate, and worth every hour I spent negotiating its 1104 pages. I've been thinking of a re-read for awhile; maybe now's the time.

Put On A Happy Face

2008-09-15T23:25:00.004-05:00

Hello there, nice people. It has been brought to my attention (in no uncertain terms) that I have been neglecting our conversation. It's true. I have gone silent as of late. But it's not you; it's me.

You see, back in April, I was laid off from my job at Book People. 13 years of doing something I truly loved down the tubes. It hurt. Heck, it still hurts. And when I hurt, I withdraw to lick my wounds. Not the most sociable reaction, I admit, but at least I'm consistent.

So now that I'm ready to rejoin the living, I'd like to take a moment to thank those who've gone out of their way to brighten a very dark 6 months: my cousin, who invited me to help her move back to Florida and let me pretend that I was on vacation rather than out of work; Jeff and Ann VanderMeer, who offered us their generous hospitality on our trip; Rick and Brandy, who always know exactly what to say; Don, Lynne, and Michelle, who've become a second family; my book group, who are well worth that drive to Austin; Karen, in the midst of a tough time herself, who always has time for me, Jim R., a former colleague and generous friend; Joe Domenici, another former colleague (and first-time author) who's made a point to stay in touch; and Scott C., who refused to let me blow off this conversation any longer. I've gotten a lot of good wishes and encouraging words, but these folks really have gone above and beyond.

So why poke my head out now, you ask? Firstly, it's time--one can only hide in a cave for so long. Secondly, I am once again gainfully employed. It's not much to start, but there's a future, and it's a future that will let me stay in Kenedy. For the first time in almost 20 years my job will not involve books, which is a little scary. But I have to say, I've printed and sent out a lot of resumes, clicked and filled out numerous online applications, and gone on "you're overqualified" interview after "you're overqualified" interview, and it was a relief simply to sit in an interview with someone who was genuinely excited to talk to me, and who seemed to believe that I might have something to contribute, overqualified or not.

So here we are again, you and I, beginning another dance. Thank you for being my partner, and I'll try not to step on your toes too often.

The Story of Forgetting

2008-04-03T11:15:00.004-05:00

Some books are easy: they engage your head with strong characters and/or good storytelling, but somehow miss connecting with your heart. That's not necessarily a bad thing--I'm wholly in favor of reading for the sheer fun of it, and every book isn't going to connect with every reader.

But some books...some books are hard. They hit you in the gut, and once they have you, they don't let go. You can still get the strong characters and the good storytelling, but this time they're wedded to a plot or situation that grabs you by the heart and squeezes till you can hardly breathe. The experience isn't always enjoyable, but when it's all over, it feels right, somehow. Necessary.

The Story of Forgetting is about a family devastated by a genetic variant of early onset Alzheimer's. We spend our time alternating between Abel, a hunchback who lives with his twin brother Paul and Paul's wife May in the 40s, and Seth, a modern day teenager whose mother is suffering from the disease. The connection between these two threads is a family story of the golden city of Isadora, where there is no sorrow because there is no memory.

Maybe it hit me so hard because, like most people passing 40, Alzheimer's is the biggest Bogeyman in my personal Anxiety Closet. Diseases of the body are bad, no doubt. But in most cases they can be fought, and even if they can't, you don't lose who you are in the process. You will be changed, certainly, but not lost. With Alzheimer's, you can lose everything: friends, family, security. Worse, your shell is still around, but none of the people who care about you can connect with you.

Maybe it hit me so hard because I was thinking about my own mother, who passed away a few years ago. Her problems were physical, to start with, but soon her mind began to go, too. We were luckier than many--she lost track of time, but she still recognized us till right at the end. Still, her confusion was heartbreaking.

So yeah, this book was difficult for me. But having gone through it and come out the other side, I feel a little bit better about it all. Don't get me wrong--there are no easy answers. But sometimes, it's enough to spend some time with someone who understands.

A Tapestry of Wonder

2008-03-26T16:09:00.009-05:00

Did you ever read a book so good that you had an actual physical reaction to something you read? Perhaps you were startled into a gasp of surprise when the killer was revealed. Maybe you shed a tear of joy when the good guys finally won, or your heart pounded when things weren't going so well. Or maybe, just maybe, if the story was good enough you dropped all of your barriers and immersed yourself in the world on the page, and suddenly this was no longer a book that you were reading but a story that you were living.

This doesn't happen very often any more. More often than not, even if it's a delightful book that I enjoy reading, I don't fall into the book, losing all track of where I am or how much time is passing. Every once in a while, I get lucky and a book grabs hold that just won't let me go. But even more rare is when I get so caught up in the story that I won't let go, either, actually slowing my reading to make the book last as long as possible.

This has happened twice in recent years: once with David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas, and once with Carlos Ruiz Zafon's The Shadow of the Wind. Both of these books absolutely transported me, and in both cases I didn't want to come back. And now it's happened again with Rabih Alameddine's upcoming The Hakawati.

At its simplest level, The Hakawati (Lebanese for storyteller), is the story of Osama al-Kharrat as he arrives home in Beirut to celebrate Eid al-Hada with his dying father. But there are so many other levels to enjoy! Alameddine weaves a beautiful tapestry of family history and Middle Eastern history which he then embellishes with all kinds of stories: adventures, romances, fables, tall tales, and myths. There are stories within stories within stories, yet you never get lost or even impatient--the storyteller's voice is so amazing and the characters so entertaining that you surrender to the pace of the storyteller and the will of the tale.

Pigeon wars in the skies above Beirut, war, family secrets, djinn in the underworld, hope, cruelty, privation, and so much more are all waiting for you between these covers; I hope you enjoy the journey as much as I did.

Lost Talk, The Extended Version

2008-03-21T09:53:00.004-05:00

We have a bit of catching up to do here, so please indulge us.

Episode 5

Mark: Best. Episode. Ever.

Okay, that's a little dramatic, but seriously, one of the best episodes of all time. It was so nice to see someone that you genuinely like finally have that cathartic moment of connection with the outside world.

We like Des, and he's been one of the more sympathetic characters since he was introduced back in, what, season 2? Sheesh. Has it been that long? There was more 'oomph' in their thirty-second phone conversation than I've seen in a long time on this show. Well done, everyone.

Peggy: I totally agree. I was riveted through the whole thing and even teary-eyed at the end.

And finally, some solid clues and explanations!

Mark: Okay, so, we've got a guy traveling back and forth through his own timeline--and it's related to a massive exposure to electromagnetic energy--and time is different on the island than it is everywhere else--and you know what? It looks like I was right, after all! Quantum Physics--the 21st century version of magic! Hooray for me! And really, seeing this much of the process only makes me want to get to the hows and the whys of the island that much more. We're eventually going to hit the phrase "string theory," and then all bets are off. Mark my words on this.

Peggy: Duly marked. “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” RIP, Sir Arthur.

Mark: Who is Ben's inside man on the boat? I think myself that it's the captain. Notice how he was referenced often, but never shown? There's a big reveal coming up. Or, conversely, it could be another someone we haven't seen yet...like, oh, maybe MICHAEL?

Peggy: Good call. We know Michael will be back sometime, but if it is him, haven’t they blown their reveal? And who are these Freightees, anyway?

Mark: I'm still thinking this is the enforcer branch of the Dharma Initiative. They know an awful lot about the island and its properties. I think this is the remnants of that program, backed off to a safe distance where Ben can't gas anyone, and they are still trying to figure out what the island is. Oooh, I just had a thought: if Dharma "solves" the mystery of what the island is, does that take the island's power away?

Peggy: Hmmmmm. Maybe. But Dharma’s initial goals had nothing to do with the island—they were about human potential. It was really just their bad luck to hire Ben’s Awful Daddy, who brought his spawn along for the ride.

Mark: Say what you want about Juliet, she's at least acting as if she has some brains. Instead of inarticulately stomping around on the beach, she says to the Breakfast Club, "we're worried because you're not. So what do you know that we don't?" Jack could take a few lessons in communication with her.

Peggy: Heh. You said “Jack” and “communication” in the same sentence.

Mark: My one niggling concern is that now the Losties are split into three groups. I hope they continue to share equal time each episode rather than the more full-blown "let's follow this group around for a while" style. That really adds to the perceived drag of the show. Everyone advancing a little bit is just fine with me, thank you. Helps to keep the threads fresh from week to week, too.

Peggy: Sure, that’d be nice, but if you throw in flashbacks and flash forwards, I don’t see how they’d be able to do it. Still, you said it up top: Best Episode in a good long while, arguably the Best Episode Ever.

Episodes 6 & 7

Okay, about Last-Last Week:

Mark: First off, if Michael Emerson ISN'T nominated for an Emmy next year, I'm going to freak out. He is bloody brilliant as Ben Linus, and this episode, where he goes from Sinister Ben to down-to-Earth Ben to earnest and manipulative Ben to "You're MINE" freaked out Ben is just...well, it's really really good TV. And this is spot-on Villain 101 Writing, here: he's the bad guy, but he's not bad. He's just way more committed to his goals than you. So committed that he's not above mass-murdering.

Peggy: Agreed. He is the most compelling character on the island, doling out information and misinformation with equal aplomb. How the hell are they going to deal with this character for 2 more years?

Mark: Well, I'm all for a spin-off show with him and Sayid, wherein Ben gets even with everyone who ever crossed him for one reason or another. But let's wrap Lost up first before we talk about that.

I like that the island was just honeycombed with this deadly gas, and it took but a throw of the switch to activate it and kill everyone. Very Bond-villain. But, then again, Ben's really really committed, isn't he?

Peggy: Didn't you just love that jawdrop on Sawyer & Hurley when Ben joined their happy family? And why is Locke such a terrible leader? I mean, seriously. Terrible. He could not step more wrongly in getting folks to join up on his "Let's Save the Island" Train if he tried. His Otherville comapnions may be sheep, but sheep stick with someone they can trust. Once he loses their trust, it's just Locke & Ben, playing house in Otherville, and Locke won't last a day against Ben.

Mark: Yeah, that was good stuff. "See you guys at dinner!" Like a little kid.

Peggy: A particularly bratty one, yes. I kind of like Take All My Toys And Go Home!Ben, even if he is over-attached to Shady!Juliet.

Mark: Actually, this episode made me like Juliet a little bit more, as well. It helped to explain that pained look on her face from time to time when Ben came up in conversation.

Peggy: It does beg the question, though, of what else she hasn't been honest or forthcoming about. Although Kate's assumption that she was deliberately misleading Jack by calling a poison gas factory a power station was definitely jealousy talking. I seriously doubt that Goodwin, Harper, or Ben ever sat Juliet down and said, “Hey, you know that power station we’re always talking about? It’s really a poison gas factory. Just thought you should know.”

Mark: At this point, the triangle is done. Kate has made her choice, and Jack has made his. It's time for her to live with it and let both Jack and Juliet do...whatever it is they are going to do. We know they don't end up together, unless the Flash Forwards didn't go forward enough. But this star-crossed stuff is just forced. The characters are all going their own way. Now, if only Kate could see it that way...

Peggy: From your mouth to God's ears, but I'm afraid God is in the tub on this one. We will never be done with this damnable Love Tetrahedron or whatever it is these days. Much like Kate looooooooves Sawyer, but thinks she should be with Jack, Jack looooooooooves Kate but thinks he should be with Juliet. It'd never work out--she's not broken enough for him to fix.

Mark: Well, you're probably right about that. But I'm thinking if we all WILL it so, then they will have no choice but to write about other things...

Peggy: *snort*

Mark: Ooooh, and how about that--Whisper whisper whisper--BANG! Here's an Other!--whisper whisper whisper--BANG! there they go again? Teleporting? Time tunnel? Someone yo-yoing with a cosmic string?

There's a hyperpocket there in that grove—or something quantum-ish. Can't wait until they finally get around to explaining that.

Peggy: Maybe. But Whisper whisper whisper PERSON could also be Smokey projecting, couldn't it?

Mark: Yes, it could be a projector of some sort--but then again, that's a pretty damn sophisticated piece of equipment.

Peggy: No, no. Smokey. As in the Smoke monster. Remember when it appeared to Eko as his dead brother? Or to young Ben as his dead Momma? Maybe the island is being proactive, taking a hand in its own survival, using Harper to bring Ben's message to Juliet in order to hit every one of Juliet's guilt buttons.

Mark: Argh. Yeah, I wasn't even thinking about that. Good point.

Peggy: And what's with the return of Bubblehead!Kate! this week? These people are not trustworthy. They have just lied to your face, and you turn your back on one of them. Sorry, darlin', but you deserved that clock on the head, as much as I still hate Charlotte.

If Daniel and Charlotte were doing something good, why not tell SOMEONE--Jack, Juliet, Vincent, ANYBODY, where they were going and why? They'd better thank their lucky stars that it was Juliet who got in and she was capable of looking past the sneaking, the lying, and the attack from behind and not shoot Daniel and Charlotte both. Dear Lord, what if it had been Jack? He would have demanded explanations until everyone on the island was breathing the gas.

It's funny how everyone, characters and fans alike, trusts Daniel. Charlotte gets something of a free pass because Daniel likes her.

Mark: Yes, that is funny because, empirically, those kinds of people are not the ones you look to in a crisis situation.

And you're right about Juliet being ideal for the two of them to run across. Birds of a feather, I guess. I, too, wonder aloud why the dorks from the boat don't just explain it to everyone what's going on. Of course, now we sorta know...they are just there for Ben.

Peggy: Well, sure, but why be all cagey about it? "Killing/Capturing Ben Linus is our primary objective. Help us, and we'll take you with us when we leave." Hell, even Locke's group doesn't like Ben and would pitch in (with the possible exception of Locke himself).

Mark: I got the impression that the Freighties don't trust the Losties because they don't know who's who yet. But yes, now, having identified the castaways, you'd think they would be a skosh more forthcoming.

Peggy: Well, yes, initially, the Breakfast Club would be right to be cautious. But by now, they know there's a Locke/Jack rift, Ben's with Locke (although as far as they know, he's still a prisoner), and Jack's group doesn't like/trust Locke OR Ben. Why not just ask for their help?

Mark: Okay, now on to Last Week:

Man, why a Korean man gotta die? I almost don't want to know how it happened. Hurley's presence at the grave would seem to indicate that the rescue isn't smooth sailing. But damn, man.

Peggy: The death date on the stone is the crash date, so he's not the "survived the crash, then died" person. Is he really dead? He could be back on the island, couldn't he? This clearly took place before all of Hurley's "We've got to go back. They want us to go back" stuff, so it's possible, right? Right? Dammit. Bastardy bastarding bastards.

Mark: I am going to call a cheat, here. That was a dirty trick, putting a flashback AND a flashforward in the same episode. I'll allow it once, but frankly, that had better not get to be a habit. I know they were waiting until the end for the suckerpunch, but in the future, find some other way of doing it that doesn't violate the storytelling structure. Please. Thank you.

Peggy: Yep. Clever, but using it more than once would be cheating.

Why was Hurley in Korea? Have we seen anything that would indicate that he felt particularly close to Sun? Where were the hordes of paparazzi writing about the birth of a child of one of the Oceanic 6, especially with another member of the 6 there to visit? This is, at most, 6 months after our current island time, so the Oceanic 6 would still be white-hot media darlings.

Mark: It may have just been that the "6" got closer for their shared experience of getting OFF the island. The lack of media is either bad writing on their part (see the trial, three shows ago), or Korea doesn't brook paparazzi interference at all.

And how about Juliet, taking a page from Ben's book? "I'll give you birth council by Any Means Necessary!" Nicely done, if only to get Jin killed, now that I think about it. Damn old Juliet.

Peggy: Even if her story & motivations remain kind of shadowy, she is dead serious about her vocation, and does not want to see another mother and child die.

Captain Gault? As in Ayn Rand's John Gault? I wonder how that ties in.

Mark: I don't know, and now I'm worried that you brought it up. I can't get to my copy of Valis soon enough. *sigh*.

Peggy: The TWOP folks pointed out a better Gault tie-in than Rand (which, I just realized, is spelled GALT, not GAULT. Doh!): William Hope Hodgson wrote many weird seas stories about a Captain Gault. Niiiiiiiice.

Mark: Indeed. Gotta love the think-tank out there. Apparently, there are a shitload of readers who watch Lost. And write for it.

Peggy: Did Zoe Bell really get all that credit time for reading a book upside down and killing herself, or will she be back?

Mark: We'll see her in flashbacks. There’s something up with that ship, too. And don't forget, we'll get Michael's story of how he came to be on the boat. Zoe will get her day or four to act.

Peggy: The return of Michael was one of the biggest anti-climaxes ever--way to settle for the obvious there, Lost. Granted, his story might turn out to be interesting, but it was telegraphed since last year at Comic-Con,and I thought Lost was better than that.

Mark: I agree, but wasn't it good to see him? You know, only Sayid can pull off that suave James Bond shit. Here comes Michael, who looks Sayid in the eye and says nice ta meetcha, and Sayid doesn't bat an eye. As you say, had it been Jack, the janitor would have been tackled and beaten until Jack "understood" what was happening.

Peggy: Do you get to feel good about fixing someone if you broke them yourself?

Mark: I'm all atwitter at what happens next!

Peggy: I know! We have, what, 5,6 more episodes left? I'm no longer sure that we're going to get off the island this season.

Mark: I think we're so close that there's no way to NOT finish up. Here's how I think it'll go down: Season four ends with them that get rescued gettting rescued. Season Five? Cut back and forth between what's going on with the island, and Jack trying to get back there. Five ends with him back on the Island, an echo of the first season opener...and then six is the final showdown between Locke and Jack. That's how I think it will fall.

Peggy: You make some good points with your timeline, but what about the Widmore/Paik/Ben side of the story? Is Widmore the big bad, or was it just Ben manipulating Locke yet again? (And if you believe that this info was Ben's last bargaining chip, I've got a bridge I want you to take a look at.)

Mark: I think Widmore is the "real" bad guy. He's never been anything but. He was the wedge between Penny and Des, he's seen buying the log to the Black Rock, and then there was that around the world boat race, or as I like to call it now, "The Bermuda Triangle 10,000"--no, he's got some agenda, and he always has, and it's always been about the boats and the ocean and presumably the island.

Peggy: I want to agree with you. I really do. I want to believe that having that definite end time has sharpened up the storylines and made it okay to actually drop some answers now and then. But then I remember that this is Lost, and I mistrust such obvious, easy answers. Especially since one of the people we've heard tell us Widmore is the Big Bad is Ben, who we all know is a lying liar who lies, and the other is Captain Gault, who Michael or someone on the freighter doesn't trust.

Mark: Of course, Ben has scads of secrets for Locke. I'm just hoping that Locke doesn't think that. He's still got some gullibility problems now and again.

Peggy: Now and again? Has Ben ever not been totally in control of Locke?

Mark: I'll see your *snort* and I'll raise you a "touche."

Peggy: How do Penny & Desmond tie in to either storyline? Why does proximity to the island make some folks skip around in time and others forget how to read and kill themselves? Captain Gault seemed awfully blase about yet another crewman offing herself. Did they bring a huge crew, or are they reaching the point of not enough people to run the boat?

Mark: Penny & Des--innocent bystanders. Pulled in because of sheer proximity to father Widmore. When Penny finds out what pop has been up to, I predict she'll go nuclear.

Daniel said (and I believe him) that there had to be exposure to radiation or an EMP for that possibility to occur. Des was the guy who popped the EMP, so, naturally, he's unstuck in time. Anyone ELSE close to the island when that EMP went off would have been (potentially) exposed, as well. Who knows why it takes EMPs or radiation to unhinge the timeline, but now that I know it's physics, I'm breathing a little easier about it.

Peggy: But as far as we know, none of the Lostaways (who were certainly closer to the hatch explosion than the Freightees) are losing their minds, forgetting how to read, or contemplating suicide. I'll give you that only certain people or really high doses of radiation or EMP cause the time slips. But there are too many other symptoms, and they're only manifesting on the freighter. You don’t see Hurley going all Marley’s Ghost, although come to think of it, there was that whole “Dave” episode. Hmmmm.

And speaking of Hurley, how does Hurley end up rescued? How do Jin and Claire die (if, indeed, they do)? How does Ben get off the island, not to mention get Sayid to kill people for him?

Mark: Is it possible that there's a LOT more than the Oceanic 6 that get off the island by secret or other means? Ben's probably got another sub or something. Or how about the supply planes that drop the Dharma groceries? You're right--maybe they don't get off the island this season.

Peggy: Does Miles still have that grenade in his mouth?

Mark: Well, in Lost-Time, it's only been a day. But yes, I think he does.

Peggy: I’m sure this makes me a bad person, but Hee!

Scrambled Eggtown

2008-02-27T18:17:00.002-06:00

Peggy: Aaron? AARON?

And a moment of rage for characters saying (or not saying) stupid things to further the thrice-bedamned Love Quadrangle: Sawyer could so easily have ameliorated Kate's "How can you possibly not want a baby with me, even though I would totally do Jack in a minute" huffiness with a simple, "I'm glad you're not pregnant because if you were, you could die." Do we get that? Nope. Yet another misunderstanding, yet another fight, yet another bounce of the Kate-pong ball in Sawyer & Jack's seemingly never-ending game.

Mark: I have to try and remember just exactly WHO knows about the unique, baby-mama killing properties of the island. I thought Kate knew, and I'm pretty sure that Sawyer didn't know. But that's neither here nor there.

Peggy: Sawyer might not know, but Kate sure as heck does. She was standing next to Sun when Juliet dropped the "They DIE!!!" bomb.

Mark: Okay, then, that was a fight deliberately picked.

The WHOLE fight was a set-up for us to get that Aaron-punch at the end of the episode. This also explains last season's cryptic "I have to get back to him," comment at the airport. It was a baby boy. And not hers, at that.

Peggy: Since Aaron had actual blood relatives living in Australia, Kate is clearly pretending that Aaron is hers, because no one would give a toddler to an accused murderer, bank robber, resisting arrest-er, Heroine of Oceanic 815 or no. And how old is Aaron, anyway? If we assume that the story is that Kate got pregnant on the island (since she wasn't pregnant when she boarded the plane), they could be years (literally or island time-wonkiness) away from rescue.

Mark: Old enough to talk is, what, 3ish? 4? Hell, I don't know. There is another possibility, of course--mama dies and Kate assumes responsibility. I don't think I like that, but it could be that.

Peggy: Yes, but if Aaron is still "Claire's baby" and not Kate's baby, Oceanic 6 rock-star fame or no, Aaron's biological father, aunt, and even the adoptive couple in LA have more of claim on him than Kate does, no matter what Claire wanted as she was left behind or on her deathbed or whatever. Add in the pricey settlement from Oceanic that Aaron would be getting, and relatives would be coming out of the woodwork to claim him.

Mark: Well, yeah, sure, but as we've seen before, Kate does whatever Kate wants to do. She's a bad girl at heart, no matter what her noble reasoning may be. So, she's got SOME reason for having that kid, and I'm sure it's believable to her own internal Kate-logic.

But Jack's reaction to the baby begs another question: he sure seems like he doesn't like the kid, eh? I think something awful happened that Jack is responsible for, and THAT'S why he doesn't want to see Aaron.

Peggy: Possible. Jack has to make a big-time, life or death-level choice between Claire and Kate. He chooses Kate. Now he and Kate are splitsville, he's found out that Claire was his half-sister, and we're a step closer to Grizzly Jack and the Beard of Guilt and Shame. It would help explain both Jack's need to get back and Kate's reluctance to go.

Mark: This was the first episode that seemed to stall out a bit for me. Oh, there was movement, sure, but it was lateral movement rather than forward movement. The Miles and Ben conversation meant nothing to nobody.

Peggy: Unless, as my imaginary internet friends have suggested, Miles & Ben were speaking in code.

Mark: They did seem rather emphatic, didn't they? No, as of right now, I'm going to say that what they said was what they meant. Miles has proven he's after money. This is par for the course, so far.

Of course Kate was going to get snuggly with Sawyer one last time before getting the boot back to Jack. There was an inevitability to that, probably based on the fact that we know she gets off of the island.

Peggy: Hmmpf. The only reason there's an inevitability to this is the investment TPTB have in that junior high love triangle.

Mark: Heh. Bitter much? No, it was only in the flash forward that we got an answer, even if it raised two more questions: how did Kate get off the island and go free? Simple. Courtroom theatrics. Nothing to it. I liked that part a lot.

Peggy: Legally speaking, that trial? Sucked. Charges from a number of different states, yet the venue is in Cali, where Kate committed no crime? The defense speaks first? Character witnesses before the prosecution speaks? Our star witness for 1 charge is unavailable, so we'll drop the other 7, too? I mean, seriously, it was awful. The procedural mishaps might have been excusable if it was a fix-up and everyone was in on it, but they'll have to ret-con the shit out of that scene to make me believe it.

Mark: You know, now that you mention it, the whole thing seemed a farce, didn't it? Tch. California courts. They'll let any celebrity go free!

But why was Jack lying about the *8* survivors of the crash? Was HE protecting them? Making it so that no one else would look for them? I'm convinced that as of the flash forwards, Jack knows way more about the island and its set-up than he ever thought he would. Otherwise, why try to protect it and deflect interest from it with this fictional story?

Peggy: Clearly the survivors have made a pact with SOMEBODY, guaranteeing them money and fame if they just follow the script. After all, Kate said she's heard Jack tell that story a lot. Because it's Jack and he's the hero (blech), we're meant to assume that he's doing it for what he believes is a noble cause. Of course, he later changes his mind, but heaven forfend we imply that Jacksus is venal.

Now let's talk about the 8 for a minute. How do we get from 6 to 8? Who might those 2dead bodies be? We know that Ben, Juliet, Rousseau, Alex, Karl, and probably Desmond can't possibly be one of the 6, or even the 8--they weren't on the plane, so they couldn't "survive" the crash. I'm going to assume for my own sanity that the 2 won't be useless redshirts. Who does that leave? We know Jack, Kate, Sayid, and Hurley are part of the 6. Is Aaron? Of our other Losties that leaves Sun, Jin, Locke, Sawyer, Claire, Rose, Bernard, and technically Michael and Waaaaaaaaalt. Neither Locke nor Sawyer want to go. I think we can assume that Claire isn't one of the 6. That leaves Sun, Jin, Rose, and Bernard (Michael and Waaaaaalt are either the 2 or not a part of this equation). Sun has a compelling reason to leave the island. Rose has a compelling reason to stay, and both Jin and Bernard would stay with their wives. I'm betting Sun & Jin for our last 2 spots. The question is the 2--who "survived the crash" but died awaiting rescue? Do we have 2 bodies to explain? Is it simply part of a more compelling cover story?

Mark: I think one of the "two dead" is Charlie--a way to honor his sacrifice without tipping anyone's hand. That way, he can be named and recognized. As for the other one--wouldn't it be funny if it was the buried alive B-actress from season 3?

Peggy: The TWOP folks have noted that Charlie talked to Penny, so he may have to be one of the two to explain that. But it's not like he would go unnoticed if he wasn't one of the two—he's (sort of) a celebrity, as is Niki; their names/photos/bios are going to be freakin' EVERYWHERE in the media circus surrounding the survivors.

Mark: That is an aspect of the flash forwards I'm starting to enjoy--the idea that these 6 folks are rock stars thanks to the media.

Peggy: The EEFP's at TWOP have pointed out that each flash forward so far has taken place before the previous one; i.e., the FFs are moving backwards in time, perhaps leaving us a season ender where we get our "rescue" and our earliest FF all at once. I like it.

Mark: Ooooh, me too! That satisfies the writer in me, that elegant structure.

Oh, and that concentration experiment that those two Breakfast Clubbers were running--I'm betting that's a test of the island's power to repair damage. What do you think?

Peggy: Either repairing damage (say, short-term memory loss) or focusing ESP. And where do you suppose they got Dharma Swan cards? Coincidence, or did we just get a big smackin' clue that the Breakfast Club is Dharma?

Mark: It would be nice if I'm right about one damn thing on this show.

Peggy: Heh. I have to admit to a few chinks in my Team Locke armor, though. I believe that the island has spoken to Locke, but he's such a damn child! The minute he's frustrated or loses confidence, he lashes out. Does the island only speak to deviant/defective personalities? This would explain Manipulative Ben, Terrible Twos Locke, and Sad Fragile Hurley. Of course if this were true, we'd have to at least allow for the possibility of Enigmatic Rousseau being special in the same way (which I would LOVE). The only other personality troubled enough to trigger an island experience is Jack's, and he did see his dead dad. Hmmmmmm.

Mark: Locke still has his baggage, despite having his dad out of the picture. What he has to remember is that Ben lives to screw with people. I was pissed at Locke's temper-tantrum...as if it were the first time he's encountered Ben! It's an echo of that "Jack bosses you around" talk—and the exact same reaction.

As for who the island speaks to--remember we have to put Mr. Echo on that list, too, even though he didn't survive the smoke. I think it's less sentient than that--the island is what it is, and you either pick up on it, or you'll never see it (or rationalize it away if you do, JACK!).

Peggy: Mr. Eko was carrying some serious guilt around for the life he led and for impersonating a man of God. Then on the island, he had a Locke-ian religious conversion that managed to out-Locke Locke himself. If someone wants to argue that he might not be the most emotionally or psychologically stable person, then I'm not sure they would be wrong.

I guess I do think there's more of a sentience there. If Jacob is a manifestation of the island, the only reason to appear in human form is to communicate on some more sophisticated level than "Island good. Outsiders bad. Make be gone."

But armor chinks and all, I'm still on Team Locke, if only because the alternative is so distasteful.

The Billionaire's Vinegar

2008-02-25T11:19:00.004-06:00

I seem to be drawn to true-life tales of con artists, scoundrels, and scallywags (see my earlier review of Charlatan and my fondness for The Whiskey Robber and The Magician and the Cardsharp).

It's not that I admire them, per se; they have all cheated, defrauded, and stolen from both governments and individuals for no higher purpose than their own gain.

But I do have to admit that I can't help but admire their chutzpah--the sheer ballsiness of their schemes. You can't help but wonder what this combination of confidence, nerve, and ambition could accomplish in more legitimate pursuits.

The nervy bastard at the center of The Billionaire's Vinegar is Hardy Rodenstock, a self-made wine connoisseur/dealer from Germany who ascended to the top of the rare wine market in the 80s via some incredible "finds" of rare vintages. Chief among these finds was a cache of rare bottles dating from the late 1700s, each engraved "Th:J." implying that they once belonged to Thomas Jefferson.

Despite the fact that questions are raised about the bottles' authenticity (from historical sources outside the wine industry/culture) from the beginning, the Forbes family paid $156,000 for a single bottle of "Jefferson wine" to be displayed along with other Jeffersonian artifacts owned by the family. This purchase sent the market for rare wines into the stratosphere.

Rodenstock was everywhere after this, with a seemingly never-ending supply of the rarest wines, a prickly personality, and a shady background.

Wallace does an excellent job setting up the culture of folks who buy and drink rare wines and how that culture changed once the paradigm shifted from buying rare wines to drink to buying rare wines as an investment or a way to show off (predictably, this vulgarization occurs once the Americans really get involved). He also does an excellent job showing how snobbery, pride, and tradition made supposed experts willfully blind to the idea of fraud.

Definitive answers are hard to come by in books like this; it's difficult to test the wine without ruining it, and no one who's paid an insane amount for a bottle of wine wants to be proved a fool. Still, the circumstantial evidence of fraud is pretty clear, meaning many very, very wealthy people spent outrageous amounts of money for wine not nearly as old or rare as what they thought.

And maybe it makes me a bad person, but it's hard not to take some small measure of satisfaction in snobby rich folks looking like fools.