I have no excuse

I have no reason why this is my first post in months. None whatsoever. I haven't been more busy than normal, I've been reading great books...

Oh well, let's catch up. During the past few months I have read a few great books, which I'll post later (I mean it this time). Including Juliet by Anne Fortier, Room by Emma Donohue, and Ape House by Sara Gruen. Can I claim that the reason I haven't posted is that the three books I just mentioned aren't actually out yet? I also read the Hanging Tree by Bryan Gruley, again not out, but check it out when it comes out, my friend Dan is mentioned in the back acknowledgments. Also, its' a great mystery.

In May I went to Book Expo, and had a fabulous time. Oh wait, that was because due to their moving the damn thing to the middle of the week I got to see more of New York than I had in previous trips (The Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty, all of Central Park, and what we called musical overload). Despite having a wonderful time, much of BEA was disappointing. Part of it was the two day format, which they are fixing for next year, but still the excruciatingly bad layout, the lack of good authors and the fact not one vendor handed me a cup of coffee during the entire expo was a disappointment after so many years of great shows. Despite that, there were some great moments, like discovering that Kathryn Stockett was signing the Help, and that they were giving out caramel cake for those in line, seeing Jon Stewart, and the fact Random House (despite some really poor line management) brought some seriously great authors this year. And of course, the well deserved lovefest that followed Justin Cronin around.

And this month I bought a Nook (the Barnes and Noble eReader). Two things to note, I love it, and it might just because I like gadgets and the fact my purse is a lot lighter now, and that being able to download books whenever I think of them is very dangerous. Though I wonder... I'm currently reading Atlas Shrugged, because I feel that the Nook is exactly the right format for the over thousand paged book. So I'm sitting on the beach reading today, and I realized, no one knows what I'm reading, they don't know I'm reading something so high brow. I could be reading Nicholas Sparks on the damn thing. Also, because it has a web browser, and online book shopping right at my finger tips, it's making me ADD. Or more ADD...

Look something shinny, time to go!

Fool and King Lear

Book Club this Friday, so I'm rereading Fool by Christopher Moore. A hardship, let me assure you, as I love this book more the second time than I did the first. I'm also rereading King Lear, mostly because it's been years since I've read it, and because I'm scared people are going to ask me tough questions. I managed, in my quest to find a copy of Lear at my school (which we did not have, do you think we should be shut down? Because I think we should be shut down), to recommend Fool to all of the English teachers in the building. Fool is King Lear from the perspective of Pocket, the fool. Except, well, Christopher Moore takes some liberties, so there is a lot more swearing, sex and things I think are hilarious. Can I be a dork and recommend you read Fool and King Lear either together or one after another? It'll make you appreciate Moore's genius all the more. Oh, and I have a copy I can lend out starting Monday, if you want to read it.

Horns

Because I was reading so many romance novels (one of which I just reviewed, the other I'm holding off until I have to reread it for bookclub next month), I grabbed a free copy of Horns by Joe Hill at work. Joe Hill is a writer of his own worth, but despite that, the only way I've ever heard him recommended is "He's Stephen King's son." Now, while this short sentence is accurate and allows us booksellers to sell you curious public on another great horror novelist, it's not really fair. He's not Jonathan Kellerman (wait, is that the son, which one is the son of the two Kellermans?), he's not Carol something Clark. He's going to be just Joe Hill in a decade or so, if he writes books like Horns, or Heart Shaped Box, his first full novel, but for right now, he's Joe Hill, Stephen Kings son. Horns opens with Ig Perrish awakening to find that he has grown horns in the night (as well as a little devil beard, you get the idea). He can't remember what he did, but he does know that these horns make people tell him their deepest darkest secrets. He uses this new power to cause a shenanigans with his family and friends, and to discover the real killer of his high school sweetheart. If you like his father, and wish he would use more Rock and Roll references, this is the book for you. Jesse Kellerman is the son of Jonathan and Faye and is now writing mysteries, for those of you who were wondering, I had to go look it up.

The Girl Who Chased The Moon

Sarah Addison Allen is one of those authors, at least for me, that make me happy without a real definitive reason why. She's Southern, writes romances and has unexplained magical elements to her books, and yet I love them. The Girl who chased the moon is her third book, and the greatest compliment I can pay a book I give to Ms. Allen. I was able to completely drown out everything going on around me while I was reading this. I didn't hear my coworkers complaining about things, I didn't hear the copier in the other room making screeching noises, and I was completely absorbed into her world. The story revolves around Emily, a teenager who moves in with her grandfather after her mother dies. Her grandfather, a giant, doesn't really know how to deal with a teenage girl, so their neighbor Julia helps acclimate the girl, despite a tumultuous past with Emily's mother. Emily meets a strange boy, who let me assure you before you start getting mad at me, is not a werewolf or a vampire. Ms. Allen simply would not put me through that with all the Twilight crap around here. Thought I was honestly a little afraid he would end up being one or the other. Emily tries to figure out his secret, while bonding with Julia. Julia has moved back into town after several years away after her father dies to take over his restaurant, and to do some really awesome sounding baking. She tries to ignore Sawyer, her high school crush with whom she shares more than just a past, and counts down the days until she can leave the town again. It's a romance novel all dressed up in cute, and delightful to the end. It's not the best book of 2010 (see my last post), but it's the first one I was so wrapped up in I was able to ignore all of my coworkers for 30 minutes 3 days straight, and that's a book worth recommending.

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...