The Passage: The Best Book of 2010

I'm not kidding, it's the best book of 2010. And it's not even out yet! Start getting excited people, I mean it. June 2nd I think is the official lay down. You are going to be hearing a lot about this book, and all of the good press is deserved. Justin Cronin has created a fascinating well written epic novel. Imagine... Stephen King's The Stand, but with vampires. But not Charlene Harris or Twilight vampires, I assure you there is nary a fwoppy haired pouter to be found. Two FBI agents start the amazing novel off by convincing a confused death row inmate to participate in a government experiment. This government experiment is creating vampires, and there is one girl, Amy, who is exposed but does not show symptoms of the disease. Now, of course the vampires escape and start taking over the country, and of course the government and army create special areas for the uninfected. The second part of the book shows us one such area decades later. This small group of survivors believe themselves to be the only survivors of the plague that has killed everyone in the world. They have walls and lights to keep the vampires out, as well as an entire culture built on survival, which is grippingly interesting and populated by amazingly vivid characters.

This books is so well written, horrific (in the best possible way), and just plain creepy I couldn't put it down, and it's pretty long. Cronin, genius and destroyer of several nights sleep running, ends pretty much every chapter with a cliffhanger, which seems unfair somehow, because for every character at every moment it's life and death. And you care deeply about this characters. Amy especially is the core character of the story, you want her to be okay, and you understand why everyone around her goes to such lengths to protect her, not just because she might be able to save humanity. I can't talk about this book too much, I'll give something away, I didn't even like telling you about the second part, but I loved it so much ! I know it's late March, and I can't declare a winner in the best book of 2010 yet, but I'm doing it anyway. I may well have to take it back, but the best book of 2009 I had read by this point last year (Fool by Christopher Moore). And Moore's new book didn't put a funny twist on Shakespeare, we aren't getting a new Thursday Next book this year (Thanks Fforde), and I'm hearing nothing in the works for any of my other best bets, so let's call it done, and I'll keep you up to date on the fluff I read the rest of the year. Coming up: Sarah Addison Allen and her strangely gripping romantic novels, Eternal on the Water, my tear jerker of the month, Hotel on the corner of Bitter and Sweet, and an entire posting as to why I went from the Passage with it's Kinglike plot to three girly fluffy romantic books in a row... No worries, I'm reading Joe Hills latest now, I managed to kick my girly sappiness pretty quickly.

The Little Giant of Aberdeen County

In honor of my bookclub tonight (and to remind myself what the book was about before the really insightful questions start), here is The Little Giant of Aberdeen County by Tiffany Baker. The Little Giant of Aberdeen County is Truly, a fascinating woman who grows to be much taller than any other woman in Aberdeen, and is taller than all of the men as well. Her mother dies during childbirth (Truly believes because she was an extremely large baby) and her father dies when she and her sister are not very old. Serena Jane, her perfect tiny sister is sent to live with the babysitter who would not watch Truly as a child, and Truly goes to live with the Dyersons, a farming family whose daughter Amelia is Truly's best friend. Truly's life is not easy, but she tries to do her best for her family (both adopted and blood), and finds her place in the world. I'm not doing it justice, but this book was great. Truly is an amazing character, interesting and vivid. Amelia and Marcus, her friends, and Robert Morgan her nemisis/ brother in law are especially well written, and I'm a sucker for a good revenge story. But who isn't, right? You fall in love with a good character, she faces some tough times, is treated badly, and then gets back at those people, while maintaining her goodness? And I didn't find it contrived? That's a hard line to tow, but Baker does it beautifully. It's a wonderful book club pick, full of interesting ideas to talk about, and fun characters to discuss. Next month is Brooklyn by Colm Toibin, which I skimmed the first chapter of while stuck behind a register the other day and looks great, so I'll let you know.

The Postmistress

The Postmistress by Sarah Blake is holding steady on the bestsellers list, and I'm going to tell you a little secret. I read it about a month ago, and didn't post anything, because well... I think it sucked. That's not fair, even as I typed it I thought it was unfair. It didn't suck. It just wasn't very good. In my book pretty much exclusively apparently. Now, the thing is, every single other person I know in the book industry who has read it loved. All of them. A few of which I consider to be infallible sources of good reading material. It's the story of a small town during WWII and three different women. The characters were okay... But just okay. The story line was interesting, I guess, but the ending was completely implausible. I gave this book to a coworker at school, and she didn't like it very much either, but I could have been influencing her opinion by handing it to her and saying something like "it sucked, please read this and tell me why people love it."

Anyway, if you want to read it, I have a copy you can borrow, just ask. And explain to me why it's great...