The Book Zombie

Long Time, No Blog

2010-10-18T14:45:00.001-03:00

Wow, it’s been too long that I’ve neglected my little home in the blogiverse. I’d always believed I was the sort of person that could go with the flow and adapt to just about anything, but over the summer change was the major (and unexpected) theme of my life. But now that things have settled back down, I hope to be able to dedicate much more time to this blog – because it is one of the hobbies that I really do enjoy. Blogging and following all the great blogs that are out there is fun, rewarding, educational and I miss it!

Anyways, how about a preview of what’s coming soon? I’ve got so many awesome books to talk about so here are a couple that I’m working up posts for right now:

Some amazing dog books: one about maintaining your dogs health,
and the other about an angel of a dog that finds the love he deserves.

One author, two great books: the first a fictional story with hints of the authors
experiences, the other a collection of personal essays of the authors life.

Perfect for Halloween: of course I read this stuff all year, but I devour it in
the wonderfully creepy season of autumn leading up to All Hallows Eve.

Oh and here is a peek at two of the changes that occurred over the summer,
we welcomed 2 new members to our menagerie of pets.

Awz (on the left)
Rody (below)

Review ♦ Undress Me In The Temple Of Heaven

2010-05-10T16:02:00.001-03:00

In 1986, Susie and her friend Claire, fresh-faced graduates from Brown University, were inspired by a placemat entitled "Pancakes of Many Nations" to depart on an epic trip around the world, starting with Hong Kong and the People's Republic of China, then only recently opened to the rest of the world. As the two ventured into what turned out to be a strange and alien land, they encountered places far different from anything they had ever experienced, from the horrors of an open-ditch toilet in the back of a weird hybrid tenement hotel, to a magical boat ride through a fantastic landscape of wind-carved mountains. At every turn, they stumbled upon unforgettable people, including an earnest local who called himself George and loved everything American from hamburgers to Stevie Wonder, a heroic German exchange student named Eckehardt Grimm, and a young waitress named Lisa in an unlikely restaurant in the middle of rural China that specialized in food for weary travelers, such as pancakes and pizza, "just like their mama make."
Armed only with Nietzsche's greatest works and a copy of Linda Goodman's Love Signs, Susie and Claire were utterly unprepared for their expedition, and their experience alternated between culture shock and exotic adventure, until a near-tragedy turned the trip into a true-life international thriller. Recounted in Susan Jane Gilman's inspired and unmistakable voice, this adventure is an unforgettable voyage into a peculiarly modern heart of darkness.

Title: Undress Me In The Temple Of Heaven	Type: Audio Book (CD) 8 Hours (320 Pages)
Author: Susan Jane Gilman	Publication Date: March 2009
Publisher: Hachette Audio	ISBN: 978-1-60024-448-3
Genre: Memoir / Travel	Purchase: Amazon

My Thoughts
So this will be the very first time that I talk about an audio book here! It’s not that I don’t enjoy listening to them, it’s more to do with the fact that (a) comfy headphones are hard to find, (b) audio books are pretty expensive, (c) my library doesn’t have the greatest selection, and (d) my house is way too noisy with kids, animals, music, and videogames! Sometimes I worry that if I happen to get too engrossed in an audio book I will be unable to hear any possible destruction/accidents/brouhahas happening around me. Anywho, over the past few weeks I took advantage of the time I spend commuting to school and back everyday and listened to Susan Jane Gilman’s fascinating travel memoir Undress Me In The Temple of Heaven. I figured listening to this in my car while traveling would allay any possible worries I had of my house falling down around me, however I became so engrossed in the story that I’m sure a parade of elephants could have been dancing down the highway beside me and I would not have noticed!

I’m not going to rehash the synopsis here, I think the publishers description included above is perfect. Instead I want to focus on the things that really impressed me.

The most important thing about audio books for me is the actual reader/narrator. From the first 5 minutes of listening I was immediately blown away by Susan Jane Gilman’s voice, perhaps because of the autobiographical nature of the story, or perhaps because she is just a born story-teller I felt like the author was speaking directly to me. This is exactly what I want with this type of audio, the personal feel, the sense that someone is telling you a story about what they’ve experienced in their life. There were moments when I could hear the laughter, the awe, and the sadness underneath the words. It truly felt as though the author were reliving certain things while discussing them.

The ability to convey emotions through the retelling added to next aspect of what I loved in this audio book – the amazing subject of the authors travels, as well as the historical and cultural reflections. The author and her friend are traveling through China in the 1980’s and throughout their experiences the author manages to slip in lots of information about how that China differed from present-day China and it also helps the reader/listener to understand just how different the culture is there from North America. As young backpackers with no real experience traveling outside their own society, the culture shock that they experience is clear, honest, and at times scary to contemplate. I really was fascinated by the descriptions of where these two young women were, the people they met, and the situations they found themselves in.

*** May contain spoilers if you don’t want to know the details of the disaster of the travels***

The two women are school friends who’ve decided to travel together, and like many friends who think they know one another well, there are always things you don’t really know. During the trip, Susan Jane Gilman begins to notice her friend Claire behaving oddly, often paranoid and anxious. At first she believes it merely to be caused from stress, tiredness, culture shock, all those little things about travel that can upset a person’s personality. However it keeps getting worse, until the author realizes that Claire is most likely suffering some sort of mental/psychological breakdown. It was terrifying to hear about what was happening, it’s hard enough to help a person through something like this on your own turf, but I couldn’t imagine doing it while in a foreign country with no network of family, friends or even healthcare officials. Not to mention the language barrier.

*** End of possible spoilers***

To sum it up, for approximately 8 hours of commuting time, I was completely engaged in Undress Me In The Temple Of Heaven. I would listen to the story on my way to school, and then sit in classes anticipating the moment when I could jump back in my car, hit the highway, and tune in again to Susan Jane Gilman’s fascinating and exciting adventure in world travel and friendship. The only issue I had with this audio book was the fact that it is an unabridged version of the actual book, but I enjoyed it so much that I am planning on picking up an unabridged copy to read in the future.

About The Author

Susan Jane Gilman is the author of the bestsellers Hypocrite In A Pouffy White Dress, and Kiss My Tiara. She has written for the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Ms., and Real Simple, among other publications, and received several literary and journalism awards. She currently lives in Geneva, Switzerland, with her husband.

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Review ♦ Would You

2010-05-06T16:14:00.001-03:00

Would You Rather
Know What’s Going To Happen
Or Not Know?

A summer night. A Saturday. For Natalie’s amazing older sister, Claire, this summer is fantastic, because she’s zooming off to college in the fall. For Natalie, it’s a summer with her friends; nothing special.

But when Claire is hit by a car, the world changes in a heartbeat. Over the next four days, moment by moment, Natalie, her parents, and their friends wait to learn if Claire will ever recover.

Book Title: Would You	Type: Mass Market Paperback 165 pages
Author: Marthe Jocelyn	Publication Date: March 2010
Publisher: Tundra Books	ISBN: 978-1-77049-223-3
Genre: Middle Grade/Young Adult	Purchase: Amazon

My Thoughts
Would You is a story about how a teen girl reacts in the aftermath of a terrible accident in which her older sister is hit by a car, which leaves her in a coma suffering from brain damage. This book begins by introducing the main character Natalie and giving a glimpse into her life. She lives an average life, with wonderful relationships with both her parents and her older sister Claire, and has a group of close friends, some of whom she loves, others who are just acquaintances. Natalie is in high school, and is also a part-time lifeguard at the local recreation centre. She enjoys hanging out at the local diner, and pool-hopping at night with her friends. Natalie and Claire are close in age and have always gotten along awesomely, except for some small sisterly arguments, and the stress that’s been bothering her lately when she thinks of Claire going off to college in the fall. To sum it up, Natalie has a terrific life and the summer looks to be full of fun.

But all of that ends immediately one evening, when Natalie returns home to find her parents waiting for her to rush off to the hospital with them. Apparently Claire has been hit by a car and is hurt very badly. It’s not until the next morning that Natalie realizes just what this could mean for her sister, her family, and herself.

The rest of the story is told from Natalie’s point of view and presents the reader with all of her thoughts about what’s going on. This is a heartbreakingly honest narrative that shows how a young girl deals with her family and her friends, while also working through the psychological and emotional effects of her sister’s accident and the possible outcomes.

As the doctor’s reveal more information about Claire’s condition, and their father becomes obsessed with statistics concerning brain injuries, Natalie finds herself playing the “Would You?” game more seriously than before. “Would You?” is a game that she’s played with friends for ages, coming up with silly or gross propositions like “Would you rather lose all your hair or all your teeth?” and “Would you rather have your father sing at the supermarket or have your mother fart in the principal’s office?” But now she’s pondering whether a person would rather die or stay alive with permanent brain damage. Or would she rather let her sister go peacefully, or keep her alive in a vegetative state.

During my youth I had not read many of those books that focus on illness, injury, or death. For whatever reason, I found them too much like afterschool specials and just didn’t appeal to me. However, Would You did appeal to me, from the moment I began reading. It almost certainly is because of how real the characters seemed to me, especially Natalie. Her actions and reactions seemed to be so true to life, for instance there is a scene where Natalie is in her bedroom which she shares with her sister, and she glances at the laptop her sister received as a grad present. From out of nowhere the thought crosses her mind that should Claire not recover the laptop will be hers. Almost instantly Natalie becomes horrified that this thought occurred to her, but in some way I think it shows that she has subconsciously has begun to accept that her sister may not make it through. That scene was terrible because of the circumstances, however I think it was important in showing how the human mind begins to prepare itself for the process of going on after a being destroyed temporarily by a life altering accident.

Would You is a very emotional read, and looks at a very dark occasion in a teen girls life. However I do think that the story being told is a valuable one. It does present emotionally scary ideas, but never becomes medically explicit. It contains a little bit of adult language used within the teens conversations, no sex, aside from some kissing, and no alcohol or drug use. So in my opinion this is a book that could definitely be read by mature middle graders as well as young adult readers.

About The Author

Marthe Jocelyn is the author of several award-winning novels and has written and illustrated picture books. Her most recent novel for Tundra Books is How It Happened in Peach Hill, which was a School Library Journal Best Book of the Year, a Bank Street College of Education Best Children’s Book, and an ALA-YALSA Best Book for Young Adults. Marthe Jocelyn lives in Stratford, Ontario.

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Review ♦ Beastly

2010-05-04T15:02:00.001-03:00

I Am A Beast

A beast. Not quite wolf or bear, gorilla or dog, but a horrible new creature who walks upright – a creature with fangs and claws and hair springing from every pore. I am a monster.
You think I’m talking fairy tales? No way. The place is New York City. The time is now. It’s no deformity, no disease. And I’ll stay this way forever – ruined – unless I can break the spell.
Yes, the spell, the one the witch in my English class cast on me. Why did she turn me into a beast who hides by day and prowls by night? I’ll tell you. I’ll tell you how I used to be Kyle Kingsbury, the guy you wished you were, with money, perfect looks, and the perfect life. And then, I’ll tell you how I became perfectly … beastly.

Book Title: Beastly	Type: Trade Paperback 304 pages
Author: Alex Flinn	Publication Date: September 2007
Publisher: Harper Teen	ISBN: 978-0-06-087418-6
Genre: Young Adult Fiction	Purchase: Amazon

My Thoughts
Beauty and the Beast is probably my favorite fairy tale of all time. I watched the Disney film over and over as a child, and also enjoyed seeing it performed live in various theatre productions. And yes, I was even a fan of the horribly corny 1980’s television series starring Linda Hamilton and Ron Perlman. What really interests me about this tale is the ideas of how a person sees themselves, thinks the world sees them, and how physical transformations can have a psychological and emotional effect on a person. It’s also very intriguing to see the beast character realize that true beauty rarely has anything to do with what something looks like.

Beastly by Alex Flinn is a re-telling of the Beauty and the Beast fairy tale, set in modern day New York City, featuring young adult characters, and told from the Beasts perspective rather than from Beauty’s. This version is very similar to the original, but what makes it really different is the change of time. From the first page this present day setting is apparent, as the story opens with a transcript from an online group chat. These chat transcripts will appear throughout the story and are an awesome detour from the main narrative. The chat group, called Unexpected Changes, is basically an online support group for people/creatures dealing with transformations. It includes characters such as a mermaid who falls in love with a sailor she saved from drowning, a frog living in a pond, and a grizzly bear who likes the ladies. It’s super fun to hear about these others and to see how Beast relates to them.

The main story is basically the same, an arrogant, popular, rich boy named Kyle gets cursed by a witch so that he will be as physically revolting as he acts. The only way to break the curse is for a girl to love him for who he truly is, rather than what he looks like. After becoming a beast, Kyle’s totally revolting father banishes him to a townhouse, where he lives with the family’s maid and a blind tutor. Some time later a man gets caught breaking into Kyle’s estate and trades his daughter Lindy to Kyle in exchange for his own freedom. Like I mentioned very similar to the original, but still unique in it’s presentation.

I found this story to be particularly interesting because of the modern setting and the different perspective it gave. By having it told by the Beast, the reader gets a better sense of how his transformation changes his outlook and his attitude. It is true that he desires his hostage to love him because it means he will revert back to his old self, however you can also get a sense of his realizing that his behavior beforehand was wrong. His father’s rejection and ex-girlfriends disgust at first confuse him, because he knows he is still the same person, but instead all they see is how he looks. This is an important part of his psychological transformation, as he realizes that he only judged according to appearance, never willing to look beyond the plain or the un-extraordinary.

The other thing that makes this story different is the role that the fathers played. Kyle’s father approves of his son because he is handsome, popular and likely to succeed in life. But even as perfect as Kyle was, his father never really seemed to value his son. And he quickly turns his back on Kyle when he becomes beastly, which shows that Kyle’s thinking was something that was reinforced by his father. However, as bad as Kyle’s dad sounds, Lindy’s father was worse. Her dad was a drug addicted lowlife who relied upon his daughter to take care of him, and was more interested in his stash of drugs than his own child’s safety and happiness. Seeing how similar these two fathers were, despite their different lifestyles was interesting and really highlights how bad parenting crosses both economic, and social class circles.

All in all, Beastly was an enjoyable read for me as it contained the traditional story elements of a favorite fairy tale, mixed in more modern elements, while also touching on some tough topics, such as peer pressure in teens and the relationships between parents and children.

About The Author

Alex Flinn loves fairy tales and made her two daughters sit through several dozen versions of “Beauty and the Beast'” while she wrote this book … then quizzed them on how they thought a beast would meet girls in New York City. She is the author of five previous books, including Breathing Underwater, an ALA Top 10 Best Book for Young Adults; Breaking Point, a 2003 ALA Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Readers; Nothing To Lose, a 2004 ALA Best Book for Young Adults; Fade To Black, a 2006 ALA Best Book for Young Adults nominee; and Diva. She lives in Miami.

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Review ♦ The Everafter

2010-04-26T17:34:00.001-03:00

Madison Stanton doesn't know where she is or how she got there. But she does know this - she is dead. And alone, in a vast, dark space. The only company she has in this place are luminescent objects that turn out to be all the things Maddy lost while she was alive. And soon she discovers that with these artifacts, she can experience - and sometimes change - moments from her life.
Her first kiss. A trip to Disney World. Her sister's wedding. A disastrous sleepover.
In reliving these moments, Maddy learns illuminating and sometimes frightening truths about her life - and death.
This is a haunting and ultimately hopeful novel about the beauty of even the most insignificant moments - and the strength of true love even beyond death.

Book Title: The Everafter	Type: Hardcover 256 pages
Author: Amy Huntley	Publication Date: September 2009
Publisher: Harper Teen	ISBN: 978-0-0617-7679-3
Genre: Young Adult	Purchase: Amazon

My Thoughts
When I first heard about this book, I knew that I needed to read it. I’ve always enjoyed hearing different theories and opinions about what happens in the afterlife. Young adult fiction is also a favorite of mine, so I was pretty sure this would be a winner. And it was!

At the beginning of the story we are introduced to Maddy, a teenage girl as she becomes conscious of her surroundings. However the consciousness she achieves is unlike anything she’s ever experienced before. The place she finds herself in is not so much a physical place, and the self she awakes as is not really the physical self she was. It’s as though she left the physical world behind and is now the essence of herself. Soon she realizes that she did indeed leave the world behind, as she knows that she is dead, but somehow still exists in this new world.

Exploring this non-place where she exists, she discovers many material objects that she had lost during her life. Once she gets the hang of moving amongst these things, Maddy begins to interact with the lost objects. By doing this she can go back to the time when she lost the particular item, and once there she can either watch her life, or with effort, become one with the self of her past. As Maddy becomes active in these past moments she can also change things, but these changes will have repercussions and will alter the future of her past self, which is terrifying to contemplate.

The only thing that Maddy is sure of is that something terrible must have happened to lead to her being dead and in this place, and she is determined to discover just what went on in her lifetime. Along the way she will also receive guidance from people she once knew to help her on her quest for knowledge.

The Everafter immediately drew me into the story, after finding out about Maddy’s situation I found myself wondering how I would feel to suddenly wake up dead, not knowing how it had happened. My initial response would be the desire to uncover the truth at any cost. And so I was enthralled with her journey.

There were many instances where Maddy returned to moments of her everyday teenaged life and while these contributed quite a bit to the mystery and also to getting a clear idea of just who she was, it was the small moments she returned to from her time with family that were really effective in creating emotional character development. Being dead, Maddy missed her family greatly, and seeing her reactions as she went back to special moments of her childhood with her parents was so touching.

The style of the story was very nicely done, with chapters jumping from Maddy’s current time in the everafter to various other times from her past. While this could have resulted in a choppy narrative, the author pulled these vignettes together to create a well-paced, engaging story.

My only complaint would have to be the way in which Maddy thought with regards to her boyfriend. There are a few scenes where she wonders why such a great guy is with her. I understand that this self-doubt can be a natural feeling, and it does contribute slightly to the storyline, however I’d much prefer to see more confident young women in young adult fiction.

Despite that minor issue, I thoroughly enjoyed The Everafter. It reminded me of another young adult novel involving a young woman and the afterlife (although quite a different version of one) called Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin, which I would also recommend.

About The Author

On any given day, you can find Amy Huntley book-hopping between children's books and 19th-century British literature. Or between a great young adult novel and an adult spy thriller. She has been a life-long reader. Amy lives with her husband and daughter in Michigan, where she is a teacher of high school English.

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Wanted: Read or Alive (cheesy eh?)

2010-03-18T21:41:00.001-03:00

Lately two things have been happening:

1. I’ve been visiting the library a lot more.
2. I’ve been completely broke

Which has led to a third thing:

3. Much less book shopping.

But, things are looking good this month and I may just have some extra cash (burning a hole) in my wallet!

So in anticipation of the moment when I could return to the lovely world of book-buying, I have been keeping a list (or two) of books I desire.

Some are already out, some are coming soon. And I thought I would share. Anything on here look particularly appealing to you also? Or are there any that you would highly recommend?

Alice in Wonderland and Philosophy: Curiouser and Curiouser
by William Irwin

I’ve always been an Alice fan, and recently having seen the movie I decided to check out what Alice related books are out there (aside from the originals of course). When I discovered that there was an Alice book in the And Philosophy series I was ecstatic! Did you realize that in the philosophy section of the bookstores you can find books about almost every pop culture phenomenon?

Beautiful Dead Book 1: Jonas
by Eden Maguire

Jenn's Bookshelves said that “Maguire’s writing style is very readable and flows well.” And “I recommend it to fans of YA and the paranormal.”

Tales of a Capricious Reader said “Well…there are some good parts and some not so good parts.” But also added that “…Eden Maguire has a way with a story. I’ll be interested to see how she grows as a writer.”

Dark Faerie Tales says “This mixture of the paranormal and the romantic delivers a tale of dark secrets, loss, and redemption.”

Feed
by Mira Grant

Last summer I read a fantastic paranormal book called Rosemary and Rue which was written by Seanan Maguire. Then I found out that Seanan was writing another series, this time about zombie(!) and under the name Mira Grant. I’m desperate to read this because (a) I ♥ zombies and (b) Seanan rocks! And I was super excited to read about the awesome review Feed received from Publisher’s Weekly – Seanan liked this line “Shunning misogynistic horror tropes in favor of genuine drama and pure creepiness” but I was fond of this part “appealing characters who conduct a soul-shredding examination of what’s true and what’s reported.”

Dead End Gene Pool
by Wendy Burden

One of the good and not-so-good things about going to school is the free access to journals, magazines, and databases. Mainly because it allows me to browse certain library/literary journals such as BookList – good because it feeds my addiction to know about upcoming releases, bad because it makes my wishlist grow and grow and grow!
I’m not sure what to expect from this book however I read this line from the description “the great-great-great-great granddaughter of Cornelius Vanderbilt gives readers a grand tour of the world of wealth and WASPish peculiarity, in her irreverent and darkly humorous memoir” and just knew it would be a fascinating story.

The Passage
by Justin Cronin

This is a book I only found out about yesterday, from the fabulous blogger Lenore. Just this February Lenore had a special event call Dystopian February which had my wishlist practically trembling with fear. But the book I am most lusting after is The Passage which earned this rating - “4 Zombie Chickens: An Excellent Example of the Dystopian (Post-Apocalyptic) Genre”

TLC Book Tour ♦ Life Sentences by Laura Lippman

2010-03-17T03:31:00.001-03:00

Author Cassandra Fallows believes she may have found the story that could become her next bestseller. When she was a girl growing up in a racially diverse middle-class neighborhood in Baltimore, a shy, quiet, unobtrusive child named Calliope Jenkins orbited Cassandra's circle of friends. Later Calliope would be accused of an unspeakable crime and would spend seven years in prison for refusing to speak about it. But by delving too deeply into Calliope's dark secrets, Cassandra may inadvertently unearth a few of her own—forcing her to reexamine the memories she holds most precious, as the stark light of truth illuminates a mother's pain, a father's betrayal . . . and what really transpired on a terrible day that devastated not only a family but an entire country.

Book Title: Life Sentences	Type: Hardcover 344 pages
Author: Laura Lippman	Publication Date: March 2009
Publisher: Harper Collins	ISBN: 978-0-06-112889-9
Genre: Mystery / Psychological Thriller	Purchase: Amazon

My Thoughts

Laura Lippman is one of those authors I’ve always meant to get around to reading, and so Life Sentences was my first experience with this author. Now to be perfectly honest I think that this particular book may not have been the best one to start with. Although I did end up enjoying this read, it took me some time to really get into the reading flow.

The plot outline really interested me, the main character Cassandra is an author looking to get back into the spotlight. After writing a couple memoirs that did very well, she then tried her hand at fiction with disastrous results. Her idea to regain her place among the bestsellers is to write another memoir, but since she told almost everything in her previous books she needs new material. So she decides to return to her hometown and do some research into a mystery involving a childhood friend, Calliope and her missing child, and the silence that surrounded the case. This description sounded like a total winner.

However the main problem I had was that Cassandra was so incredibly unlikable for me. On her return home she tries to reconnect with old friends in order to gain information for her writing, and when these friends aren’t quite so happy to see her, Cassandra actually appears shocked. She seems to not understand how these women may feel about her having used their lives as parts of her books, and her intentions to pry into their pasts once more.

Aside from my annoyance with Cassandra, I also found myself wanting the pace to be slightly more accelerated. Or rather I would have enjoyed certain aspects to be examined more in depth (particularly the interactions between Cassandra and her group of friends, past and present) while others were less focused (Cassandra’s introspective meanderings).

The mystery element was very enjoyable and kept me reading to discover what had happened and what would come to occur. I was especially keen to discover the secrets surrounding Calliope – how a mother could stay silent so long about the disappearance of her child was fascinating.

The other element of the story that really interested me was the relationship between Cassandra and her father. Having based an entire memoir upon her father, I was completely hooked on the part of the story where Cassandra begins to find that she didn’t have the whole picture when presenting her father.

As much as I didn’t like Cassandra I found that the true strength of this novel was how the author portrayed her as a woman who thought she knew what the truth was, but slowly loses her confidence as she sees how her own mind has created illusions upon her memories. Writing two bestselling memoirs about her life may mean that Cassandra is a talented writer, but she finds out that how she saw things, or remembered things does not necessarily mean that her version is the most reliable. This personal revelation took an unlikable character and explained the flaws which I disliked, I found it refreshing for a character to take a step back and reconsider how things change when the viewpoint or viewer differs.

About The Author

Laura Lippman grew up in Baltimore and returned to her hometown in 1989 to work as a journalist. After writing seven books while still a full-time reporter, she left the Baltimore Sun to focus on fiction. The author of two New York Times bestsellers, What The Dead Know and Another Thing To Fall, she has won numerous awards for her work, including the Edgar, Quill, Anthony, Nero Wolfe, Agatha, Gumshoe, Barry, and Macavity.

Other TLC Blog Tour Stops

1-March-10: Raging Bibliomania
3-March-10: Caribousmom
8-March-10: Thoughts From An Evil Overlord
9-March-10: Word Lily
10-March-10: Shhh I'm Reading...

15-March-10: Booksie's Blog
23-March-10: I'm Booking It
25-March-10: Pages Turned
29-March-10: Luxury Reading
31-March-10: Cozy Little House

Thanks so much to Trish at TLC Book Tours for giving
me the opportunity to host a stop on this tour!

Graphic Novels v.6 ♦ Next Stop, The Twilight Zone!

2010-03-16T02:03:00.001-03:00

“I suspect that my husband, Rod Serling, the Father of The Twilight Zone, would heartily approve of this new dimension of his stories. The adaptations and fine graphic pictures in this grand new series have truly caught the feeling and climate of that wondrous world of imagination.”

– Carol Serling

The Twilight Zone has been a favorite TV series of mine since I was a little kid. The 1959 black & white reruns specifically. They were short, but that isn’t to say they had no depth. They could be funny, scary, sad, or completely bizarre – but the episodes always had so much going on beneath the surface. In my opinion The Twilight Zone was not just a form of entertainment, it was also a vehicle that Rod Serling and other writers could use to satirize certain things going on in the world. The episodes could be watched solely as entertainment or they could provoke the viewer to look further into the issues they broached.

Death’s-Head Revisited

Location: Dachau concentration camp, years after World War II. A retired German SS captain returns to reminisce about his days in power – until he finds himself at the mercy of those he tortured, on trial by those who died at his hands. Justice will finally be served – in the Twilight Zone.
(Adapted from Rod Serling’s original television script)

Author: Mark Kneece Genre: Graphic Novel YA

Illustrator: Chris Lie Type: Hardcover 72 pages

Publisher: Walker Books Publication Date: May 2009

My Thoughts
The original screenplay for this episode was apparently written as a way for Serling to address the aftermath of WWII. This was one of the more serious stories and the translation from television to graphic novel only emphasize this.

An SS officer who had escaped at the end of the war, went on to live a normal life under an assumed identity. In his later years he returns to Dachau, the camp he was in charge of. Once there he finds himself surrounded by memories and the ghosts of the men he helped destroy. These men teach him that they will have their revenge – not a physical revenge, but a mental, emotional, and spiritual revenge.

Death’s-Head Revisited was not an enjoyable graphic novel, but I feel there is much to be learned from it’s message. The ideas that a person cannot escape from the evil they do is very clear here. Guilt is something that will always be with a person, and even if they escape their punishment – it will come in time, regardless of the form it takes.

The Odyssey Of Flight 33

Transocean Flight 33 departs London bound for New York as scheduled. But a mysterious tailwind sends them far off course, hurtling back and forth through time. Can the crew hitch a ride in hyperspace and get the passengers back to their own time?
(Adapted from Rod Serling’s original television script)

Author: Mark Kneece Genre: Graphic Novel YA

Illustrator: Robert Grabe Type: Hardcover 72 pages

Publisher: Walker Books Publication Date: December 2008

My Thoughts
My first experience with this story was watching it on DVD and it struck me as being so creepily realistic. The graphic novel version keeps this creepiness intact. Part of the reason I think it works well is that so many people have nervousness regarding air travel. I myself don’t mind going on planes but I have to admit to having those worst-case thoughts running through my mind.

In this story Flight 33 is running normal enough until the plane encounters some windy turbulence and lose contact. Why they lose radio contact is not in my worst-case worry file – they’ve actually run off course – into a time-slip. Now the pilots must try to figure out how to get back to their own time, before they run out of fuel.

The plot for this story was pretty basic, which was great because the characters really took the spotlight here. From the pilots and stewards, to the passengers there is a wide arc of reactions to the situation and all of them seem very natural. As a reader I didn’t become interested in one character more so than any other – however the ending is very open which allowed me to further imagine how they would all as individuals cope with their situation.

The Big Tall Wish

Washed-up boxer Bolie Jackson is about to be knocked down and counted out when Henry, a young neighbor with magical powers, makes the biggest, tallest wish he can think of - for Bolie to win the match. But believing doesn't come easily to some people, and rejecting Henry's wish could end Bolie's career and ruin a young boy's faith in magic. They each have to the count of ten ... in the Twilight Zone.
(Adapted from Rod Serling’s original television script)

Author: Mark Kneece Genre: Graphic Novel YA

Illustrator: Chris Lie Type: Hardcover 72 pages

Publisher: Walker Books Publication Date: September 2009

My Thoughts
The Big Tall Wish has a very simple, and heart-breaking premise. Bolie, a boxer whose on his way out of the profession, is going into a fight that he is destined to lose. Henry, a young boy who idolizes Bolie promises that he will make his biggest, tallest wish for Bolie to win. During the fight Bolie gets knocked out, ending the fight a loser – but when he regains consciousness it is to find out he won the fight after all. Bolie is unable to believe that Henry’s magic wish was responsible and is whooshed back to the boxing ring where he again regains consciousness as the fight’s loser. But the truly sad part of this story is that by denying Henry’s big, tall wish Bolie has destroyed a child’s belief in magic.

What makes this story such an important one aside from it’s obvious moral is the background history of the original television episode. The Big Tall Wish first aired on April 1960 and featured a leading cast of all black actors. Rod Serling’s decision to do this was really amazing and would prompt many other producers to do the same. Also in 1961 The Twilight Zone/Rod Serling was honored with the Unity Award for Outstanding Contributions to Better Race Relations for their support.

The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street

Maple Street. Late on a Saturday afternoon. A mysterious flash of light results in a power outage. But this is no ordinary power failure, and the neighbors of Maple Street will soon find themselves in the dark with an enemy – of their own creation.
(Adapted from Rod Serling’s original television script)

Author: Mark Kneece Genre: Graphic Novel YA

Illustrator: Rich Ellis Type: Hardcover 72 pages

Publisher: Walker Books Publication Date: December 2008

My Thoughts
The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street is by far one of my top ten Twilight Zone stories. In this story a extremely normal, even generic, neighborhood in the suburbs falls completely apart. Neighbors and friends turn on one another, paranoia spreads like wildfire, accusations and insults are thrown about and eventually violence breaks out, ending with senseless murder.

What could cause such a thing to happen? It’s actually something very innocent – the people on the street lose their power after witnessing what they believe to be a meteor shooting across the sky. Then someone mentions that perhaps their power has been shut off to keep them there. Next a young boy suggests that perhaps a monster did it, monsters who are now on the way to get them.

I absolutely love how this story moves forward so quickly, gaining momentum, just as the characters in the story grow more and more nervous, scared and paranoid. Anyone whose has ever heard of real life occurrences of group mass hysteria will understand the creepy feeling that this story gave me. When people don’t understand what is happening, the most outrageous things seem possible, and friends can suddenly seem like enemies. (Just consider for a moment the insanity that went on during the Salem witch hunts/trials!)

Will The Real Martian Please Stand Up?

On a cold, snowy evening state troopers track footprints from a mysterious crash site to a nearby diner, where a group of bus passengers waits out the storm. But, oddly enough, there is one more person at this roadside eatery than there were people on the bus. Who is this extra person? And what are his or her intentions for planet Earth? An intergalactic twist like this can only be found ... in the Twilight Zone.

Author: Mark Kneece Genre: Graphic Novel YA

Illustrator: Rich Ellis Type: Hardcover 72 pages

Publisher: Walker Books Publication Date: September 2009

My Thoughts
This last one is slightly different than the rest, it contains a little bit of mystery and humor. During a snowstorm a busload of travelers take refuge in a small-town diner. Meanwhile a pair of local police are investigating a mysterious crash of what they think must be a UFO. When a trail leads them to the diner it quickly becomes clear that one of the people in the diner isn’t supposed to be there – and that’s means he or she must be the alien who crashed the UFO.

Here is a situation where a group of people are thrown together, knowing that one of them may be an alien from another planet. They do become agitated and more than a little paranoid, everyone is trying to prove their own humanness or to point out why certain others may not be who they say they are. But rather than going the violent lynch mob route, this story takes a more lighthearted approach to the mystery. And the answer to the mystery may not be what the reader nor the group of people in the diner were expecting.

The entire Twilight Zone graphic novel series consists of eight books, so far I’ve only read these five but I am looking forward to checking out the other three. The artwork and text are great tributes to the original television episodes and are full of interesting extras, including original production notes, an introduction by Anna Marlis Burgard (Director of Industry Partnerships, Savannah College of Art and Design), and a closing essay entitled “Adapting Stories From Rod Serlings The Twilight Zone” by Mark Kneece (Professor of Sequential Art, Savannah College of Art and Design).

Say what now?

2010-03-03T14:55:00.001-04:00

Thanks to a fellow blogger, I found out that my site was doing some pretty strange things – not working at all being the biggest problem! I’m hoping I have most of the glitches fixed up, but if you notice things are wonky, this is why.

My presence in the blogiverse has been pretty pathetic lately – although thanks to my handy-dandy new iPhone I have been reading/lurking everyone’s blogs! This semester has been very intense in terms of tests, assignments, projects. (I’m a first year LIT (Library Information Technology) student btw)
But it’s almost the end of the year for me and I am counting down the days till I can get back to blogging and commenting on a more regular basis!!

TLC Book Tour ♦ Dream House by Valerie Laken

2010-02-24T10:50:00.001-04:00

What price will people pay to hold their homes and dreams together?

When Kate and Stuart Kinzler buy a run-down historic house in Ann Arbor, Michigan, they’re hoping their grand renovation project can rescue their troubled marriage. Instead, they discover that years ago their home was the scene of a terrible crime – and the revelation tips the balance of their precarious union.
When a mysterious man begins lurking around her yard, Kate, now alone, is forced to confront her home’s dangerous past. Hers is not the only life that has crumbled under this roof. This man’s family also disintegrated here, as the result of one brief act of rage that may haunt him – and this house – for years to come.

Book Title: Dream House	Type: Trade Paperback 352 pages
Author: Valerie Laken	Publication Date: January 2010
Publisher: Harper Perennial	ISBN: 978-0-06-084093-8
Genre: Contemporary Fiction	Purchase: Amazon

My Thoughts

Probably one of the most exciting things about buying a new house is the actual house tours. The buyer is a stranger walking into what was a home to the previous owners and envisioning how they will make it their own. What goes into the decision to purchase is how a particular house will become a home, because where a person lives is so much a part of their life. But how many prospective homeowners go to open houses and try to see what lives were lived in the house in the past? I’m guessing that not many do, even though houses are memory banks of lives, secrets, and history.

Kate and Stuart Kinzler have bought a house that they plan to completely renovate with the hopes that this process will also have a positive effect on their marriage which has started to fall apart. But after discovering their new houses’ history, it appears that their renovation project will be easier to complete than their own personal problems.

Eventually Kate finds herself going on with the house project alone, until one day Walker Price shows up and offers to help. Working alongside Walker, Kate will discover some of her houses’ secrets and learn that giving a house a face-lift does not erase the history it hides.

In Dream House there are a number of story-lines at work, that all play a part in how the novel concludes. Kate and Stuarts’ relationship plot was the one I was least interested in. I felt it had too much of a made-for-tv movie feel to it, and I was a little cynical. A couple experiencing marriage problems takes on a major project or change in order to fix things – it seemed like they were hoping that this project would take the pressure off their current issues. To me this is an obvious mistake, the only way to fix a problem is to face it head-on. Plus the stress and pressures that come with home renovation could only exacerbate their relationship headaches.

However, the relationships that Kate develops later on in the story with her new acquaintances, Walker and Jay, led to the meat of the story which I really enjoyed. The author uses their present interactions as a way to tell about the history of the house as well as the characters, and that is what made the story work well for me. I liked that things were revealed slowly as the story progressed, there were no shocking plot-twists or other gimmicks, the story just slowly (but satisfyingly) unwound.

I enjoyed Valerie Laken’s Dream House very much, especially how the past and present came together. Although some of the elements were predictable, the story was unique. At first I had hoped it would focus on the development of Kate, but in the end I found it was more about how a house can be many things for different people.

About The Author

Valerie Laken’s work has appeared in such publications as Ploughshares, the Missouri Review, and the Chicago Tribune.
The winner of a Pushcart Prize, she teaches in the creative writing program at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Other TLC Blog Tour Stops

1-Feb-10: Stephanie’s Written Word
4-Feb-10: One Persons Journey
9-Feb-10: lit*chick
10-Feb-10: I’m Booking It
15-Feb-10: Devourer of Books

17-Feb-10: Educating Petunia
18-Feb-10: Dolce Bellezza
22-Feb-10: Wordsmithonia
25-Feb-10: All About {n}

Thanks so much to Trish at TLC Book Tours for giving
me the opportunity to host a stop on this tour!

Review / Read-A-Long ♦ A Wrinkle In Time

2010-02-16T09:36:00.001-04:00

It’s a dark and stormy night. Meg Murry, her small brother Charles Wallace, and their mother are in the kitchen for a midnight snack when a most disturbing visitor arrives.
“Wild nights are my glory,” the unearthly stranger tells them. “I just got caught in a downdraft and blown off course. Let me sit down for a moment, and then I’ll be on my way. Speaking of ways, by the way, there is such a thing as a tesseract.”
Meg’s father had been experimenting with this fifth dimension of time travel when he mysteriously disappeared. Now the time has come for Meg, her friend Calvin, and Charles Wallace to rescue him. But can they outwit the forces of evil they will encounter on their heart-stopping journey through space?

Book Title: A Wrinkle In Time	Type: Trade Paperback 211 pages
Author: Madeleine L’Engle	Publication Date: 1962
Publisher: Yearling	ISBN: 0-440-49805-8
Genre: Youth / Fantasy / Sci-Fi	Purchase: Amazon

My Thoughts
Seems slightly ironic that I am so very late in blogging about the January book for the Time Quartet Read-A-Long … punctuality is my weakness, now if only I could figure out how to fold time backwards I’d be set!

Over at Kailana’s blog she is hosting a readalong that involves reading a book a month from Madeleine L’Engle’s Time series. January was the kick-off with Book 1 A Wrinkle In Time.

For some reason this is a series of books that I hadn’t read as a child (or that I cannot remember) so this was the perfect excuse for me to pick them up. I also hadn’t watched the television movie based on the books, which meant I had no real expectations going into the reading. With that said and after reading the first book, I’m not sure this is a series I would continue on my own. Not that I didn’t like A Wrinkle in Time, but I just didn’t love it either. This is one of those books where I’m more interested because of ideas within the story than the actual story itself.

What I did love about this book was the characters, or rather the mixture of personalities. This book features 3 children (Meg, Charles Wallace and Calvin), as the main characters along with extended family (mom, dad, older twin brothers), a trio of helpful ladies/entities (Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who, Mrs. Which) various aliens and non-earth creatures, and the token villain – IT (person, entity, idea?)
I didn’t like all the characters, in fact I felt a strong dislike for some of them. But that I think is what made them so appealing. Just like in real life there will be people you just can’t relate to, as well as people that intrigue you. Certain things were really relatable about Meg and she was a girl who I tried my hardest to like or even understand, but found her to be a little too whiney and (for her age) naive. Charles Wallace on the other hand came across as a total void personality-wise, but his above-average intelligence fascinated me.

Of all the characters the otherworld creatures were my favorite, in particular Aunt Beast. She is from a race of non-humans on the planet Ixchel, these beings cannot see visually, but seem to be stronger mentally because of this. Last semester I had a creative writing assignment that required us to write a description of our campus for a visitor who is blind – Meg has a similar experience when communicating with Aunt Beast, and she discovers that the idea of a thing is sometimes more important and informative than its appearance.

Now just let me slip into my super-nerd glasses and tell you what I loved most about this book = the ideas! Time travel books are a tricky lot for me, I don’t only want to read about past times, future times or other worlds. I want a little bit of science on the side (factual or fictional) Why am I addicted to Donnie Darko? Because of the Tangential Universe Theory. And so when reading A Wrinkle in Time I became obsessed by the ideas of folding time and Tesseracts. (That little blue diagram on the side is a visual representation of a Tesseract or hypercube) To be honest I don’t understand a bit of what it actually means mathematically, but it led me on late-night web prowling sessions to try and obtain even a slight understanding. Hours of Quantum Mechanics, Quantum Physics and Time-Space theory reading later I’m still at a loss but I’m starting to get a taste of what the theories are hypothesizing.

And that is what made this book a winner for me. The actual story was good, but took second place to the ideas. I love books that make me think, that prompt me to seek answers. In that way I find that a book has made a lasting impression on me and that it was time well spent.

About The Author

Madeleine L’Engle (1918-2007) was the author of more than forty books for children, including the Newberry Award Medal winner A Wrinkle In Time and its sequels, A Wind In The Door, A Swiftly Tilting Planet, and Many Waters all available in Dell Yearling Editions. She lived in New York and Connecticut.

Other Reviews

Beyond Books

Book Nut

Books & Other Thoughts

Care's Online Book Club

Dolce Bellezza

In The Shadow of Mt. TBR

Maw Books Blog

My Years of Reading Seriously

Rhinoa's Ramblings

Saving My Sanity

Stuff As Dreams Are Made On

Things Mean A Lot

The Written World

The Zen Leaf

TLC Book Tour ♦ The Cougar Club by Susan McBride

2010-02-10T07:06:00.000-04:00

A novel for women of a certain age who are hot and bothered by society’s double standards – champagne happy hours mandatory – cubs get in free.

They tell you that forty is the new thirty, but try telling that to the men you want to date. Kat Maguire is successful, good-looking, and single … so when the dating pool starts getting a bit shallow, she and her friends decide to go swimming in a different spot – a place where the younger men are. After all, guys have been dating younger women since the dawn of time. But Kat and her friends soon discover that no matter what your age, love and life still comes with its share of triumphs, heartbreaks … and yes, romance.

Book Title: The Cougar Club	Type: Trade Paperback 336 pages
Author: Susan McBride	Publication Date: January 2010
Publisher: Avon Books	ISBN: 978-0-06-177126-2
Genre: Contemporary Fiction	Purchase: Amazon

My Thoughts

To say that New York advertising executive Kat Maguire is having a bad day would be quite the understatement. At first she thought getting stuck without an umbrella, in a downpour, on her way to work for an important meeting with a client was the thing that would ruin her day. But less than a few hours later, sitting in a airplane wearing a soaking wet, dog-smelling suit she realizes a rain-destroyed outfit, losing her job to an age-prejudiced boss, and walking in on her younger boyfriend having cyber sex, ruined not only her day, but also her idea of how she expected her life to go.

Now Kat is on a plane headed back to her hometown of St. Louis in hopes of starting over in a place she has always loved. Kat does have doubts as to how she will pick up the pieces and begin again – especially because of her age, but she is determined to finally find happiness. Plus, by returning home she will be able to reconnect with her two best friends, Elise the happily married dermatologist, and Carla the successful and very famous local news anchor.

What she doesn’t expect upon her return is to see that her friends are also unhappy with the current state of their lives. However, the reunion of this trio of friends will help all three women to face their problems, and with the support of one another they will try to reinvent themselves into the women they have always dreamt of being.

At first I thought that The Cougar Club would be the typical fluffy, chick lit novel, but within 20 pages or so I realized that was not the case. While it is a light and at times very funny story, it is by no means fluff. The three main female characters of this book are in their forties, and although I am still in my thirties I felt a connection to them. Kat, Elise and Carla were all very natural characters whose thoughts about themselves, each other and life I could relate to. All three women were facing certain struggles in their lives, and they were issues that the average woman is likely to encounter or at least be familiar with. Issues such as the way that society views women as they pass from their twenties through into their forties, the cultural focus on youth, the opinions concerning older men dating younger women versus older women dating younger men – basically the ideas that when a woman hits a certain age she must do everything possible to appear younger or else she will be discarded and replaced with a newer model.

The subject of female friendship was also extremely well done. I enjoyed seeing how these women rebuilt their friendship and it really highlighted for me the importance of maintaining closeness with your true friends. This was perhaps the best part of the story for me, I found it refreshing to read about how healthy it can be for women to remain close throughout life, to provide support to one another, and most importantly to just let loose and have fun together. Overall this was a terrific book that I plan to pass along to one of my own close girlfriends, and I will be looking forward to checking out more from this author in the future.

About The Author

Susan McBride knows how to spin a good story. She got her ideas for her mysteries while she was a sorority pledge at the University of Texas, watching the Dallas debutantes practice their curtsies in study hall. She got her idea for The Cougar Club by wondering what happened to those same sorority gals twenty-five years later. The author of the best-selling young adult series, The Debs, Susan currently lives in St. Louis, Missouri, with her much younger husband.

Other TLC Blog Tour Stops

01-Feb-10: Cindy's Love of Books
04-Feb-10: The Winey Mommy
08-Feb-10: My Overstuffed Bookshelf
15-Feb-10: This That and the Other Thing
17-Feb-10: Stacy's Books

18-Feb-10: All About {n}
22-Feb-10: Clever Girl Goes Blog
23-Feb-10: Simply Stacie
24-Feb-10: My Reading Room
25-Feb-10: Write Meg

Thanks so much to Trish at TLC Book Tours for giving
me the opportunity to host a stop on this tour!

Graphic Novels v.5 ♦ Scott Pilgrim = NPZR*

2010-02-06T14:41:00.001-04:00

Today’s Graphic Novels post is going to highlight a series that I have fallen ass over teakettle for, Bryan Lee O’Malleys’ Scott Pilgrim! *As the title states Scott Pilgrim = NPZR (“Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot” a combination of all the awesomeness of everything!)

So far I have read 5 of the comic volumes, am anxiously awaiting number 6, and I’m in a fan-girl frenzy for the upcoming movie based on the series. Oh and it’s also gonna be a video game! ♥Squeee♥

Scott Pilgrim’s
Precious Little Life
Volume 1

Everything Is Totally Sweet

Scott Pilgrim’s life is so awesome. He’s 23 years old, in a rock band, “between jobs,” and dating a cute high school girl. Everything’s fantastic until a seriously mind-blowing, dangerously fashionable, rollerblading delivery girl named Ramona Flowers starts cruising through his dreams and sailing by him at parties. But the path to Ms. Flowers isn’t covered in rose petals. Ramona’s seven evil ex-boyfriends stand in the way between Scott and true happiness. Can Scott beat the bad guys and get the girl without turning his precious little life upside-down?

Author: Bryan Lee O'Malley Publication Date: July 2004

Publisher: ONI Press Type: Paperback 168 pages

Genre: Graphic Novel (teen) Purchase: Amazon

My Thoughts
So this first volume in the series was pretty much character introduction to Scott Pilgrim. The reader learns that he is a 20-something slacker who shares a very-cramped apartment with his friend Wallace. Scott also loves video games and practicing with his band Sex Bob-omb. There is also lots to learn about Scott’s circle of friends/acquaintances, who come off as a very realistic group of people as there are many different vibes between certain of them. They are all unique in their own way, and you can tell that unknown histories between some of them have an impact of the social group as a whole. The biggest impact in this volume is the addition of Ramona Flowers, a girl who Scott dreamt about and then discovers is an Amazon delivery girl. Scott falls for Ramona hard, and the only thing standing in the way in Scott’s 17-year-old girlfriend (o.O) and Ramona’s 7 evil exes (O.o)

This was definitely a fantastic series opener for me, I loved the mixture of the realistic slacker life-style and the fantastical ninja/evil-exes/dream-girl aspect.

Scott Pilgrim
vs. The World
Volume 2

How Does He Do It?

Scott Pilgrim has two girls on the go. When he’s with Knives Chau, he feels like he can erase his past and start over. When he’s with Ramona Flowers, he‘s ready to accept all that, grow up and move on. But like all adult relationships, Ramona comes with baggage – in her case, seven evil ex-boyfriends, showing up one by one to challenge Scott for the right to date her. What happens when Knives and Ramona meet? What happens when Scott’s own ex-flames get thrown in? How will Scott deal? Which girl will he choose? And why, oh why, can’t the past stay past?

Author: Bryan Lee O'Malley Publication Date: May 2005

Publisher: ONI Press Type: Paperback 200 pages

Genre: Graphic Novel (teen) Purchase: Amazon

My Thoughts
Scott Pilgrim is perfectly okay with having to fight a bunch of evil ex-boyfriends in order to date Ramona Flowers, but he’s a little nervous about breaking off his relationship with 17-year-old high school girlfriend Knives Chau. But first a flashback to Scott’s high school days where we learn a little more about Scott and more interesting (for me) was the back-story of Sex Bob-ombs drummer Kim. I loved learning about Kim and Scott’s history because it made their interactions in the present-day narrative more clear. End flashback, and Knives is more than a little pissed at being dumped. Which sets up the perfect opportunity for a Ninja-style fight between Knives and Ramona in (are you ready for this??) the Library! And of course we cannot forget that Scott must face-off against another of Ramona’s evil exes. But just when things start to become somewhat normal again Scott gets a phone call from one of his exes Envy … and things are not looking so hot for Scott Pilgrim.

Scott Pilgrim
& The Infinite Sadness
Volume 3

Things Keep Happening

Scott Pilgrim’s new girlfriend, Ramona Flowers, has made his life slightly more complicated. She’s got 7 evil ex-boyfriends, and they’ve been showing up one by one to challenge Scott for the right to date her. Boyfriend #3, Todd Ingram, comes with extra baggage: he’s currently dating the former love of Scott Pilgrim’s life! Envy Adams broke Scott’s heart a year and a half ago. Now she’s back for more, along with her evil art-rock band, The Clash at Demonhead. She’s getting Scott’s band to open a show in two days – just enough time for Scott to fight Todd, get over Envy, keep Ramona happy, fend off the advances of demented ex-girlfriends, and practice that new set list. Right??

Author: Bryan Lee O'Malley Publication Date: May 2006

Publisher: ONI Press Type: Paperback 192 pages

Genre: Graphic Novel (teen) Purchase: Amazon

My Thoughts
Volume 3 follows the story directly from the last, after a phone call from his ex-girlfriend Envy, Scott tries to get control over his emotions. But first another flashback. This time the reader is treated to Scott’s university history when he and Envy were an item. At that time Envy was known as Natalie and was pretty much a quiet wallflower type. But she went on to become a successful rocker, and broke Scott’s heart in the process. Back to the present, Envy and her band (which includes one of Ramona’s evil exes) is back in town. This volume is full of fighting, revelations and fun. Although Scott and Ramona’s romance is still the main focus, the supporting characters are still evolving with stories of their own.

Scott Pilgrim
Gets It Together
Volume 4

It’s Summertime

But who can relax? Welcome back to Scott Pilgrim’s nightmarish little existence. His relationship with Ramona Flowers is sweeter than ever, but he’s still got girl troubles, seven evil ex-boyfriends still want to kill him, and worst of all, now she wants him to get a job! Scott Pilgrim Volume 4: Now with more kicks, punches, rock & roll, subspace, half-ninjas, experience points, samurai swords, girly action, and laughable attempts to seek gainful employment.

Author: Bryan Lee O'Malley Publication Date: October 2007

Publisher: ONI Press Type: Paperback 216 pages

Genre: Graphic Novel (teen) Purchase: Amazon

My Thoughts
Scott Gets It Together is a rather hopeful title for this volume, but even as Scott gets a job, moves into his new place and finally decides he really loves Ramona … other things are happening that aren’t quite so organized. Sex Bob-omb is recording their very first single which is good, but the bad thing is that the band members are losing morale as practices become fewer and farther between. Scott is also being stalked by a mysterious samurai-wielding stranger. And he realizes that not all of Ramona’s evil exes are going to be ex-boyfriends. As if that weren’t enough Ramona seems to be doubting how serious Scott was with an old friend of his that has come to town and joined in with the crowd.

Scott Pilgrim
vs. The Universe
Volume 5

The World Is Not Enough

Why did he have to turn twenty-four? Why do robots keep trying to kill him? Why is the band falling apart? Why is Ramona acting so weird? Why won’t those brilliant and deadly Japanese twins leave him alone? See Scott Pilgrim learn the answers inside ... or die trying!

Author: Bryan Lee O'Malley Publication Date: February 2009

Publisher: ONI Press Type: Paperback 184 pages

Genre: Graphic Novel (teen) Purchase: Amazon

My Thoughts
A lot happens in Volume 5, including Scott battling the next two evil exes who are twins who specialize in robotics. But the majority of the action seemed to be setting things up for an ultimate showdown in the next (and final?) volume. Questions about Ramona’s strange metaphysical travels, her glowing head and the mysterious man named Gideon from her past are all brought to the fore-front. This isn’t to say that Volume 5 wasn’t an enjoyable read, but it definitely left me wanting (desperately) to find out all the answers.

I’ve attempted to keep my comments about the individual volumes as vague as possible in order to not spoil anything. The Scott Pilgrim series is one that I highly recommend to all readers, I think there is something to be appreciated by everyone.

My only worries now is whether to watch the movie asap when it comes out or wait until Volume 6 of the comics is released. Although from the web-searching I’ve done the movie apparently will have a different ending from the written series, I’m still pondering.

Links of interest: Bryan Lee O'Malley's website, Scott Pilgrim's home on the net, and the Scott Pilgrim Movie blog.

About The Author
One of the extra bonuses I loved from the Scott Pilgrim series was that each volume offered a different about the author blurb with artwork from the author.

Volume 1 ♦ Bryan Lee O’Malley has been alive since 1979. He currently lives in Toronto. He plays some guitar and keyboards, but is pretty bad at bass. His first book was Lost at Sea. His second book is this one.

Volume 2 ♦ Bryan Lee O’Malley was born in London, Ontario. His only goal in life was to become rich. At the time of this writing, he is not very rich at all. The Scott Pilgrim series is his life’s work, after which he plans to retire to a house by the ocean and eat smoked salmon for every meal until his death. He currently lives in an apartment somewhere in Canada with Hope Larson and two cats.

Volume 3 ♦ Bryan Lee O’Malley (born 21 February 1979) is a Canadian cartoonist and occasional musician. He lives in the wilderness with Hope Larson (www.hopelarson.com) and three cats, and has an extremely great website at www.radiomaru.com

Volume 4 ♦ Bryan Lee O’Malley has been alive since he was born and will live until he dies, which will probably be pretty soon. His dying wish will be the wish that he hadn’t wasted his best years drawing this book. His epitaph will be whiny and narcissistic.

Volume 5 ♦ Bryan Lee O’Malley was made in Canada. This is the first book he has ever completed on schedule. He was 29. It was awesome.

Other Reviews

Books & Other Thoughts

Sophisticated Dorkiness -- Volume 1
Stuff As Dreams Are Made On -- Volume 1,2,3,4,5
The Written World -- Volume 1

Review ♦ Zombocalypse Now

2010-01-27T17:35:00.001-04:00

They Don’t Want Your Body, They Want Your Brains

You’re a stuffed bunny and it’s the end of the world. Between you and your objective are forty or fifty zombies gorging themselves on the flesh of the living. If you disguise yourself as one of them and try to sneak past the feeding frenzy, turn to page 183. If you grab a tire iron, flip out and get medieval on their undead asses, turn to page 11.
Zombocalypse Now is a comedy/horror reimagining of the choose-your-own-ending books you grew up with. You’ll be confronted with undead hordes, internet dating, improper police procedure, and the very real possibility that you’ll lose your grip on reality and wind up chewing the carpets.
The zombie apocalypse has never been this much fun.

Book Title: Zombocalypse Now	Type: Trade Paperback 278 Pages
Author: Matt Youngmark	Publication Date: August 2009
Publisher: Chooseomatic Books	ISBN: 978-0-9840678-0-0
Genre: Fiction / Comedy / Horror / Action	Purchase: Amazon

My Thoughts
First things first, I’m guessing that pretty much everyone who was alive during the eighties knows what a choose-your-own-adventure book is. But for anyone who doesn’t here is the Wikipedia definition that sums it up pretty nicely:

Each story is written from a second-person point of view, with the reader assuming the role of the protagonist and making choices that determine the main character's actions in response to the plot and its outcome.

As a kid, I loved these books. As an adult I love zombies. Zombocalypse Now ties both these things together and casts the reader as a pink plush bunny. Wicked! The first chapter introduces the reader to their character (the above mentioned pink plush bunny), who is sitting in a restaurant waiting to meet up with a PerfectForeverLoveMatch.com blind date. However when she finally arrives, she only wants to talk about brrraaaaaaains. So much for finding Mrs. Right. And here is where you must make your first decision on where the plot will go. And this is when you will finally comprehend that your date is actually one of many zombies that are on the loose looking for some cerebral snacks.

I found this book to be just as much fun as the choose-your-own-adventures from my childhood, actually it was more fun because every story arc (whether I died or not) was different incorporating lots of zombie creatures and the humor was quite funny. The cover of the book states that there are 112 possible endings with at least 7 in which you don’t die. When I started reading I assumed that being a huge zombie-phile I would find those 7 positive endings with no problem at all – but I was so wrong! A lot of the twists were pretty unexpected. My favorite (so far) would have to be the one where I escape the zombies by jumping into a fishing boat and trying to find an island that’s not been touched by the zombie outbreak, but end up running out of gas, not finding land and not having any food or water. Luckily it was a fishing boat, so I cast a line and try to catch my supper – unluckily I end up catching a zombie mackerel that eats me for dinner.

Zombocalypse Now is definitely an awesome book, and fun to read more than once. Another thing that makes this book great is that it’s perfect for a long car ride. Read it aloud and have the kids decide which path to take in the story! Pink plush bunnies, zombies, undead llamas and good, clean family fun.

About The Author
Matt Youngmark lives in Seattle. Zombocalypse Now is his first book.

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Review ♦ The 30-Second Commute

2010-01-18T15:23:00.001-04:00

The 30-Second Commute:
A non-fiction comedy about writing and working from home.

The 30 Second Commute is a comic narrative about the real life of a full–time writer. Stephanie Dickison had been successfully publishing features and articles for over a decade while working a full–time job, but in December 2005, she left the secure world of a real job to tackle completing a manuscript that was close to five years old and to take on freelance writing full time. Drawing on her years as a book and pop music critic, she delves into food writing and becomes a restaurant critic for a big city Web site. She starts a blog about new products and services and soon, she and her fiancé have to consider moving due to the product piled up behind the bathroom door. Celebrity interviews, feature articles, and offers to speak about writing are just some of the highlights of what can happen when you get to live your dream. There are also the cautionary tales of what happens when you’re your own boss, saying yes to every offer that comes your way and typing hunched over a roll top desk for 14 hours a day, but mostly it is a celebration and exploration of a writer just trying to make her way in this crazy world – one word at a time.

Book Title: The 30-Second Commute	Type: Trade Paperback 192 Pages
Author: Stephanie Dickison	Publication Date: June 2009
Publisher: ECW Press	ISBN: 978-1-55022-837-3
Genre: Non-Fiction / Memoir	Purchase: Amazon

My Thoughts
Becoming a full-time writer is not one of the things on my own personal life agenda, however full-time writers have always been people that I admire. I will admit that having a career that allows me to work from home is something I would love, although I’m pretty sure it’s not in my future. Honestly I have had daydreams involving me in pajamas, on my sofa, possessing the skills required to write something, anything, that would earn me a paycheck (and really who hasn’t dreamt of this?) But now after having read The 30-Second Commute I realize that my daydream is just that for me. For others with more motivation, more skill, and determination it could be a reality.

Stephanie Dickison has written this completely engaging work of non-fiction, that focuses on all the aspects of her life as a freelance writer with a goal to make it her full-time job. The 30-Second Commute is written and structured wonderfully. First of all the contents at the beginning is laid out to resemble a track list within a media player, using some familiar (to me) songs as well as ones I’d never heard of before. That made it really fun to try and guess how the chapter would relate to the song chosen as the chapter title. Another great thing about the chapters is that there is no inter-dependence between them. In other words, each chapter could be read alone, and the reader would not be left wondering. They each tell a small story. Put all these stories together and they are even more enjoyable. For me personally I like this structure which allows choice; being able to randomly choose a section to read, or reading from beginning to end.

Best of all, the stories themselves are fantastic! Although I enjoyed the entire book, it was the author’s personality that I liked best. Hearing about everything from her food writing to her multi-tasking prowess, the insights into pop culture and tidbits about family – all these subjects were interesting and helped envision where the author wanted to be as a writer. And I cannot forget to mention something that I find a terrific addition to non-fiction – visuals of any kind. Along with the track list contents page, The 30-Second Commute also contains photos, lists, informational text boxes, and even a recipe for fudge!

This book is definitely one I enjoyed and would recommend. I’ve also been following along on Stephanies’ site The Knack where she talks about just about everything – if you are anything like me about nail polish you may want to check out her review of OPIs new 2010 line-up – I’m totally loving Jade Is The New Black!

About The Author
Journalist, essayist, and cultural critic Stephanie Dickison has contributed to several non-fiction books and encyclopedias and has written hundreds of articles for national and international magazines and newspapers. Her feature writing has appeared in the Toronto Star, Washington Asia Press, The Writer, Pan, PCWorld.ca, MacWorldCanada.ca, and dozens of other publications. She lives in Toronto.

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Review ♦ Await Your Reply

2010-01-13T13:24:00.001-04:00

The Lives Of Three Strangers Interconnect In Unforeseen Ways
– And With Unexpected Consequences.

Longing to get on with his life, Miles Cheshire nevertheless can’t stop searching for his troubled twin brother, Hayden, who has been missing for ten years. Hayden has covered his tracks skillfully, moving stealthily from place to place, managing along the way to hold down various jobs and seem, to the people he meets, entirely normal. But some version of the truth is always concealed.
A few days after graduating from high school, Lucy Lattimore sneaks away from the small town of Pompey, Ohio, with her charismatic former history teacher. The arrive in Nebraska, in the middle of nowhere, at a long deserted motel next to a dried up reservoir, to figure out the next move on their path to a new life. But soon Lucy begins to feel quietly uneasy.
My whole life is a lie, thinks Ryan Schuyler, who has recently learned some shocking news. In response, he walks off the Northwestern University campus, hops on a bus, and breaks loose from his existence, which suddenly seems abstract and tenuous. Presumed dead, Ryan decides to remake himself – through unconventional and precarious means.

Book Title: Await Your Reply	Type: Hardcover 324 Pages
Author: Dan Chaon	Publication Date: August 2009
Publisher: Ballantine Books	ISBN: 978-0-345-47602-9
Genre: Contemporary Fiction	Purchase: Amazon

My Thoughts
Await Your Reply is one of those books in which the plot and how it unwinds structurally is the major reason why I enjoy it. This novel tells three separate stories, with the three stories being built upon in a rotation of chapters. I love this structure, but it makes it really difficult to discuss without inadvertently exposing spoilers. So to get an idea of the actual premise of Await Your Reply you need to read the summary I’ve provided above – it comes directly from the dust-jacket and does an absolutely terrific job of presenting the main ideas without spoiling anything (something I am not so good at doing.) *Have you ever thought that the persons responsible for creating book jacket summaries should get some recognition for their good work? I’ve seen some jacket summaries so full of spoilers I just about lose my mind – but the good ones really don't get the attention they deserve.*

Now then, if you read the summary you see that this book has three main characters – Miles, a man searching for his quite possibly mad twin brother; Lucy, a young woman who takes off to make a new life for herself with her former professor; and Ryan, a young man who leaves his life behind after discovering he isn’t who he thought he was all his life. These three characters are all so different, yet there is the theme of identity, confusion and searching shared between their stories. For most of the book these stories are quite un-related except by those themes. I’m the type of reader that guesses constantly about how different narratives will become connected later on, and there were so many things running through my mind while reading this book. Many theories of relation popped into my head, but the fantastic thing for me while reading Await Your Reply is that I couldn’t get a concrete idea of how this would end. If you are like me and try to guess and tie things up while reading, this is a book that you will either enjoy terribly or it will make you crazy (in a good “OMG I need to know” kind of way!)

The last thing I want to mention is that I’ve heard many readers saying that they don’t like or don’t think they could read books that have separate narratives told in alternating chapters. If you fall into one of those groups, I’d say if you wanted to give it another shot definitely go with Await Your Reply. The chapters are short, the different narratives are easily identifiable and the writing is excellent in keeping a nice, steady flow going. So even when you start a new chapter featuring a different character there is no jarring sensation. It could be the writing or the theme or maybe how easy the characters were to become involved with, perhaps the mix of all three, but this book is a terrific page-turner.

About The Author
Dan Chaon is the acclaimed author of Among The Missing, which was a finalist for the National Book Award, and You Remind Me Of Me, which was named one of the best books of the year by The Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle, The Christian Monitor, and Entertainment Weekly, among other publications. Chaon’s fiction has appeared in many journals and anthologies, including The Best American Short Stories, Pushcart Prize, and The O. Henry Prize Stories. He has been a finalist for the National Magazine Award in Fiction, and he was the recipient of the 2006 Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Chaon lives in Cleveland, Ohio, and teaches at Oberlin College, where he is the Pauline M. Delaney Professor of Creative Writing.

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TSS ♦ Organizing … the blog and the books (o.O)

2010-01-10T16:59:00.001-04:00

Haven’t done a Sunday Salon in quite awhile, and this one is basically going to be about me ~~whining, complaining,~~ trying to figure out what needs to be done organizationally for my blog.

First off, and most importantly I have a backlog of reviews to get settled. Review copies and ARCs that I’ve read and not reviewed have taken the top spot in must-do. Apologies to publishers and authors I am owing posts to, but they are coming. I’m hoping to get completely caught up by the middle to end of February. In the next week, I’ll be blogging about the following books:

** Just now looking at those 6 book covers I realized how ~~weird~~ eclectic my reading taste actually is **

Another post I have lined up is a look at the first 8 books in the Sookie Stackhouse series, and the short story anthology. I’d actually considered making this into a monthly type of post – since I’ve been re-reading a lot of series’ books to catch back up with newly released additions to the series’.

Challenges. That’s another biggie on my list of organizing must-do’s. I haven’t taken a really close look but I think that I may have failed to complete 3 of my 2009 challenges. But on the plus side even though the end-dates have passed, I still intend to continue with them for my own personal satisfaction. As for 2010 challenges, I’ve chosen a few to take part in, signed up, and posted my challenge posts. I feel good about the ones I’ve picked so there is another plus.

Now onto the thing that is driving me absolutely out of my mind, crazy! My books, bookcases, shelves, etc. Here’s the situation … too many books + not enough shelves = insanity, tears and denial. In the next few weeks I need to completely fix this or I may need medication and/or a straitjacket. First I need to gather all the books in the house and analyze – creating piles of ‘must-keeps’, ‘to-be-reads’ and ‘these need to go’. Funny thing is, this past semester I studied the weeding process for libraries, and got a pretty awesome grade for my final assignment which involved actually weeding books from a collection – however they were books that weren’t mine – that makes all the difference imo :P

Anyways, hopefully I can weed my own collection, and make a nice sized donation and a pile to trade for book credits. I may take photos of this epic endeavor of re-organization – maybe a before and after style montage – that’s if I can manage to not sob like a toddler the entire time :D

Happy Sunday everyone!

Review ♦ Only True Genius In The Family

2010-01-06T01:39:00.001-04:00

Claire’s father always said that in their family, genius skipped a generation. Maybe he was right. The daughter of a legendary landscape photographer and the mother of a painter whose career is about to take off, Claire has carved out a practical living as a commercial photographer. It may not earn her glory, but it’s paid for a good life in a beautiful house on the beach.

When her father suddenly dies, Claire loses faith in the work she has devoted her life to – and worse, begins to feel jealous of her daughter’s success. But as she helps prepare a retrospective of her famous father’s photographs, Claire uncovers revelations about him that change everything she believes about herself as a mother, a daughter, and an artist…

Book Title: Only True Genius In The Family	Type: Trade Paperback 292 Pages
Author: Jennie Nash	Publication Date: February 2009
Publisher: Penguin	ISBN: 978-0-425-22575-2
Genre: Fiction	Purchase: Amazon

My Thoughts
There is nothing I love more than stories about families and how they work. A family is so much more intricate than even the most sophisticated type of machinery. Within the structure of a family the members are all individual gears, moving in their own unique ways. What makes families so remarkable is how these separate pieces change themselves, alter others, and find that perfect synchronicity to keep the entire thing successfully working. The Only True Genius In The Family is a story concerning a family on the edge, specifically focusing on a woman named Claire, who is daughter, mother, wife and career woman. The person she has become has been defined by how she relates to her family. But in order to be happy she needs to strip away the influences of her familial roles and find her own true self.

Claire’s recently deceased father was a world renowned photographer. Her daughter Bailey is an up and coming painter who seems destined to be a famous artist. Claire herself is a food photographer, who has always been satisfied with her job and her work. But as she watches her daughter’s artistic ability bloom, with credit going to her father, she begins to reconsider her own creativity. She no longer sees herself as an artist and her work begins to feel unimportant to her. She has always worked so hard to achieve perfection in her work, and feels as though her father and daughter get much greater results with little to no effort. Added to this mix is the fact that Claire’s husband has a very influential career in business management. Her entire family is successful using their natural talents, and she begins to doubt the existence of her own type of personal ingrained talent.

Claire’s story is told in such an amazing way, not only is this a novel about family dynamics, but also a character study of a woman on a journey of self-discovery. The characters are all so realistic, with actions and reactions that appear completely natural. The thing that is most refreshing about this story is the pure honesty of Claire’s emotions. Her thoughts, her doubts and her revelations are perfect and utterly true-to-life. Reading this book felt so much like getting to know a real family, there were no good guys or bad guys, there were only human beings trying to keep their family unit intact while still maintaining their own individuality. This story really highlighted how relations feel love, jealousy, anger, remorse, and a desire to please others while still satisfying their own inner needs.

The Only True Genius In The Family is both a simple story about one woman and a look into the intricate and delicate workings of a family. This is a book that I enjoyed from beginning to end, and I am very much looking forward to reading more from this author.

About The Author
Jennie Nash is the author of three books of narrative nonfiction and one novel, The Last Beach Bugalow. She lives in Torrance, California.

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Review ♦ One Second After

2010-01-04T17:45:00.001-04:00

New York Times Bestselling Author William R. Forstchen Tells A Story That Might Be All Too Terrifyingly Real. A story in which one man struggles to save his family and his small North Carolina town after America loses a war that sends our nation back to the Dark Ages. A war lost because of a terrifying weapon, an Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) … that may already be in the hands of our enemies. Months before publication, One Second After has already been cited on the floor of Congress as a book all Americans should read. It has been discussed in the corridors of the Pentagon as a realistic look at EMPs and their awesome ability to send catastrophic shockwaves throughout the United States, literally within seconds. EMPs are a weapon that The Wall Street Journal warned could shatter our nation. In the tradition of On The Beach, Fail-Safe, and Testament, this book, set in a typical American town, is a dire warning of what might be our future … and our end.

Book Title: One Second After	Type: Trade Paperback 350 pages
Author: William R. Forstchen	Publication Date: November 2009
Publisher: Forge	ISBN: 978-0-7653-2725-3
Genre: Fiction / Science-Fiction	Purchase: Amazon

My Thoughts
One Second After is very much the type of book that I normally enjoy – a fictional yet realistic story populated by a group of people who are trying to survive after a cataclysmic disaster has changed the way in which society itself works, or for that matter something that breaks down society from a worldwide organization into small branches of separate societies. In this book, the disaster is caused by an EMP (electro-magnetic pulse). EMPs will basically fry anything that has an electronic component, and so the survivors in this book are left without anything that requires electric power to run. The fact that EMPs are a possibility in our own reality makes this idea really scary. Living in the Maritimes I have had some experience with weather-related power outages, some lasting as long as 2 weeks, so the idea of losing all power indefinitely was terrifying to me. For all these reasons, I was sure that One Second After would be a winner of a book for me. However, sometimes when things look perfect you discover the exact opposite.

My main complaint, and the first thing that I noticed at about 25 pages in, was that the structure of this book was very disjointed. There is the main story containing narration, dialogue, all the normal things in fiction. Scattered amongst this was the scientific and technological explanations and hypotheses concerning EMPs. Both of these things were necessary to make the story work, because a reader would need to know the information in order to fully understand what was going on. However the problem that arose for me was that the style and tone changed drastically when the two met. For example, a group of town people would be having a meeting to discuss what had happened, why there was no power – casual conversations between peers – but then one of the people would begin explaining to the group the way in which EMPs worked. Automatically the tone shifted and I personally felt that the story ended and was replaced by a blurb (or several pages) of straight non-fiction. This shift was jarring to the flow and also made it seem as though the explaining person had abruptly jumped out of character. Once I realized that this was going to happen quite often, my interest in the book itself diminished.

I honestly hate to seem like I am picking apart any book, but the other problems I had also made this a less than enjoyable read. However my reviews are based on honesty, so here are a few of the more prominent complaints I had. The editing of the book itself was poor, with sentences that felt very unnatural, especially within the dialogue. It felt to me as though no one had read through the book after the first draft. Also from my point of view as a female, the women in this book were not portrayed quite as realistically or positively as I’d hoped. The mayor and some women in the put-together militia were female but they never seemed to be important to the plot. The main females fell into the roles of sick daughter, dead wife, old mother-in-law and possible love interest. Now would be a good time to mention that the story contained a whole whack of formulaic characters and relational situations. My one last complaint – and right upfront I will say it has nothing to do with my being a Canadian – it was seriously annoying that whenever something negative happened or was mentioned, a character would say something about being an American. Certain phrases like “but we’re Americans” or “but this is America” repeatedly being used got tiresome, it began to feel as though the author wanted readers to believe that the United States as presented in this book was beyond perfection and incapable of any wrongdoing. Apologies to all Americans out there, this isn’t meant as a personal criticism of your country – it would have bothered me just as much had the story been set in Canada or England or any other country in the world.

So there you have it, just a few of my thoughts about One Second After. Makes me feel like a cranky old curmudgeon but honestly I had high hopes for this book and it just fell flat for me on all levels. The description of this book, as well as the introduction mentioned the books On The Beach and Alas, Babylon – both books that share similar themes – my recommendation would be to skip this one and check out either of those instead. Then again, everyone’s taste is different and One Second After might be the perfect fit for you.

About The Author
William R. Forstchen has a Ph.D. from Purdue University with specializations in military history and the history of technology. He is a faculty fellow and professor of history at Montreat College. Forstchen is the author of more than forty books, including the New York Times bestselling novels Gettysburg and Pearl Harbor (co-authored with Newt Gingrich), as well as the award-winning young adult novel We Look Like Men Of War. He has also written numerous short stories and articles about military history and military technology. His interests include archaeology; he owns and flies an original WWII “recon bird.” Dr. Forstchen resides near Asheville, North Carolina, with his teenage daughter, Meghan, and their small pack of golden retrievers and yellow labs.

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Clearing Out The Cobwebs

2010-01-02T22:10:00.001-04:00

So how about I just sneak in and pretend I haven’t been totally MIA for the past two months? Ok? Good! Just mind the cobwebs and try not to write smart-alecky comments in the dust :P

Whoa it’s finally 2010, I’m pretty stoked even though everything I date for the next five months or so will look like this – ~~2009~~ 2010 – It was pretty near 2005 before I managed to not start every date with a 19.

Anyways, hope everyone has had an amazing year. I’m a bit late to the party and my google reader resembles the fallout of a nuclear war zone. However I did see this snazzy-cool end of year questionnaire over at the fantabulous Madame Care’s! I decided to snag it seeing as how she borrowed it from my favorite fizzybeverage Jill, who also borrowed it from the original creator Savidge Reads (who is the newest awesome blog addition to feed reader.) I did change a couple of the questions up so if you want the original follow the links above.

Here we go….

How many books read in 2009?

Counting up the total makes me think I’m either a super-reader or a super-geek with no social life … but I’m super-pumped about my stats any which way! 228 books read in 2009! And to make my super-geekiness even more probable I kept track of how many pages too. That total is 64446 which is awesome because it’s palindromic and I’m all about symmetry!!

How many graphic novels versus traditional text?

44 graphic novels and 184 traditional books. Both groups containing a mixture of genres, reading levels and types (fiction, non-fiction, memoir.)

Male/Female author ratio?

116 female. 103 male. 9 male & female. These are my favorite stats because I really wanted to read an even amount this year and ending up with more women authors was fantastic!

Favorite book of 2009?

I’ve never rated my books … hate doing it to tell the truth. It feels so unfair of me because really sometimes a truly great book just walks into my life at the wrong time. Reading so many different types of books makes it harder still cause at different times I yearn for stuff that is silly or scary or serious. If I could choose 5 books from this year that I’ve enjoyed immensely they would be Fruit by Brian Francis, Dismantled by Jennifer McMahon, The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield, Tunneling To The Center of the Earth by Kevin Wilson and Mercy Among the Children by David Adams Richards. Honorable mention should go to Patrick Ness’ Knife of Never Letting Go, damn that book broke my heart.

Least favourite?

Hurry Down Sunshine – The best example of my hopes for a book being hit by a truck and dragged for 40 miles across broken glass.

Any that you simply couldn’t finish and why?

The only book that I didn’t finish reading was Dora Borealis by Daccia Bloomfield. While reading it I just wasn’t getting pulled in. My concentration was pretty scattered at the time. Funny thing is I returned it to the library and then wrote a DNF post about it, and about a month later I bought a copy. It is a book that I am really wanting to finish when the time is right.

Oldest book read?

Shirley Jackson’s Haunting of Hill House and Edward Goreys’ Curious Sofa are two of the older ones I read this year, published in 1959 and 1961.

Newest?

Absolutely no idea! That’s one thing I would like to change about how I keep track of my books read. Right now I only list publication year, but I’m thinking of adding the months from now on.

Longest and shortest book titles?

Longest Title – 101 Questions Your Dog Would Ask Its Vet If Your Dog Could Talk by Bruce Fogle and Lalla Ward. It was published in the early 1990’s but the information inside was really helpful.

Shortest Title – Sum by David Eagleman. A very interesting collection of different opinions and beliefs concerning what waits for us in the afterlife.

Longest and shortest books?

The shortest at 32 pages was Neil Gaiman’s The Dangerous Alphabet, the illustrations were so beautiful that I spent lots of time looking through it. So small page count doesn’t necessarily mean less to enjoy. The longest book I read was Stephen King’s Under The Dome, with a whopping 1074 pages. But it was quite good so I flew through it like it was a pocket book.

How many books from the library?

Love my library and it shows since nearly 33% of my books read came from there. In total I read 74 books courtesy of the Halifax Public Library.

Any translated books?

Hmm … never thought to keep track of this. However I am currently reading a wonderful French-to-English translation of Nikolski by Nicolas Dickner. It’s one of the books that were chosen for this years Canada Reads event.

Most read author of the year, and how many books by that author?

I’ve got some high ones in this category mainly because of re-reading certain series’. From the Sookie Stackhouse series I read 9 by Charlaine Harris. Then I read 6 of the Kitty Norville books by Carrie Vaughn.

Any re-reads?

The first 2 or 3 from both the Sookie Stackhouse and Kitty Norville series’ were re-reads – if it’s been awhile between series books I like to reacquaint myself. Also I’m re-reading the entire Vampire Diaries series. And just cause he is so fuggin’ awesome I re-re-read Generation X and Girlfriend In A Coma by Douglas Coupland.

Favourite character of the year?

Manchee. Hands down.

How many CanLit books read?

I’m crazy excited to have read 20 books by Canadian authors this year. And also glad to have found a special section at my fave bookshop devoted to Canuck literature.

Which book wouldn’t you have read without someone’s specific recommendation?

The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin – thanks to Dewey’s review and the Dewey Reading Challenge.
Queenie Chan’s Dreaming series – thanks to Kailana’s review.
Horns & Wrinkles – Great kids book I found thanks to Darla D, Natasha and Nymeth.
Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness – Chris’ review convinced me this would be amazing.

Which author was new to you in 2009 that you now want to read the entire works of?

Off the top of my head I would have to say David Almond and Joan Didion. I was introduced to Almond this year through the book Skellig and it was pure magic. And The Year of Magical Thinking was my first and definitely not last book by Joan Didion.

Which books are you annoyed you didn’t read?

I’d desperately wanted to read Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger. But I’m not annoyed really, it just means I have one more book to look forward to.

Did you read any books you have always been meaning to read?

Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean M. Auel and Outlander by Diana Gabaldon have both been on my to-be-read list forever. So I am glad that I knocked those two off. Although they are both first in a series books so it kinda added more to my to-be-read list. *sigh* :P

Happy 2010 Everyone!! Wishing you all the best in this new year!

2010 Reading Log

2010-01-01T18:18:00.000-04:00

January

A Wrinkle in Time – Madeleine L’Engle
Alcoholic – Jonathan Ames
Cinema Panopticon – Thomas Ott
Crypt-Keeping It Real – Tales From The Crypt
Death’s Head Revisited – Twilight Zone
Hellraiser Collected Best V.2 – Clive Barker
Her Fearful Symmetry – Audrey Niffengger
Locke & Key V.1 Welcome To Lovecraft – Joe Hill
Lovecraft – Hans Rodionoff
Monsters Are Due On Maple Street – Twilight Zone
Odyssey of Flight 33 – Twilight Zone
One Second After – William R. Forstchen
Only True Genius In The Family – Jennie Nash
Scott Pilgrim Volume 1 Precious Little Life – Bryan Lee O’Malley
Scott Pilgrim Volume 2 VS The World – Bryan Lee O’Malley
Scott Pilgrim Volume 3 Infinite Sadness – Bryan Lee O’Malley
Scott Pilgrim Volume 4 Gets It Together – Bryan Lee O’Malley
Scott Pilgrim Volume 5 VS The Universe – Bryan Lee O’Malley
Something Wicca This Way Comes – Tales From The Crypt
Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite – Gerard Way
World More Full of Weeping – Robert Wiersema
Yabba Dabba Voodoo – Tales From The Crypt
You-Tomb – Tales From The Crypt

February

Arrival – Shaun Tan
Atlantic Canada’s 100 Greatest Books – Adams & Clare
Ball Peen Hammer – Adam Rapp
Cougar Club – Susan McBride
Dream House – Valerie Laken
Genesis – Bernard Beckett
Horror Story & Other Horror Stories – Robert Boyczuk
I Kissed A Zombie and I Liked It – Adam Selzer
Never Slow Dance With A Zombie – E Van Lowe

March

101 Best Graphic Novels – Stephen Weiner
Black Hole – Charles Burns
Burnout – Rebecca Donner
Courtney Crumrin Volume 1 Night Things – Ted Naifeh
Courtney Crumrin Volume 2 Coven of Mystics – Ted Naifeh
Courtney Crumrin Volume 3 Twilight Kingdom – Ted Naifeh
Everafter – Amy Huntley
Generation A – Douglas Coupland
Good To A Fault – Marina Endicott
Graphic Classics: Robert Louis Stevenson – Tom Pomplum
Hunger Games – Suzanne Collins
Life Sentences – Laura Lippman
Manga Shakespeare: Midsummer Night’s Dream
Scream Queen – Brendan Hay
Secret Lives of Great Authors – Robert Schnakenberg
Stranger Than Fiction – Chuck Palahniuk
Big Tall Wish – Twilight Zone
Time Flies When You’re In A Coma – Mike Daly
Will The Real Martian Please Stand Up – Twilight Zone
Zombie Queen Of Newbury High – Amanda Ashby

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

Indicates CanLit

What’s In A Name 3 Reading Challenge

2010-01-01T01:00:00.008-04:00

What’s In A Name 3

Hosted by Beth F

1 January 2010 – 31 December 2010

Read 6 books with titles that fit the categories.

	1. A book with a “food” in the title:
	2. A book with a “body of water” in the title:
	3. A book with a “title (queen, president, etc)” in the title:
	4. A book with a “plant” in the title:
	5. A book with a “place name (country, city, etc)” in the title:
	6. A book with a “music term” in the title:

TwentyTen Reading Challenge

2010-01-01T01:00:00.007-04:00

TwentyTen Challenge

Hosted by Bart’s Bookshelf

1 January 2010 – 31 December 2010

Read 20 Books from 10 categories in 2010

	Young Adult

	To Be Read

	Shiny & New

	Bad Bloggers

	Charity

	New In 2010

	Older Than You

	Win! Win!

	Who Are You Again?

	Up To You

2010 Countdown Challenge

2010-01-01T01:00:00.006-04:00

Countdown Challenge 2010

Hosted by 3M

9 September 2009 – 10 October 2010

Read the number of books first published in a given year that corresponds to the last digit of each year in the 2000s for a total of 55 Books.

Books Published in 2010

Books Published in 2009

Books Published in 2008

Books Published in 2007

Books Published in 2006

Books Published in 2005

Books Published in 2004

Books Published in 2003

Books Published in 2002

Book Published in 2001

Time Quartet Read-A-Long

2010-01-01T01:00:00.005-04:00

2010 Time Quartet Read-a-long

Hosted by Kailana

1 January 2010 –

Book 1: A Wrinkle In Time – Read in January
Book 2: A Wind In The Door
Book 3: A Swiftly Tilting Planet
Book 4: Many Waters

1.	3.
2.	4.