BOOK SALON

The White Darkness by Geraldine McCaughrean

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 04:18:08 GMT

scarredbyitall reviewed The White Darkness for us back in January, and I was intrigued enough by her description to request it from the library. I was frustrated by the beginning of the book, and I'm still a little irritated that the narrator was so passive, but this was a beautiful book. I wish I had the original copy in which I stuck post-it flags on the most remarkable passages.

Searching for her original review, I realized scarredbyitall ALSO recommended The Dead of Summer to the book salon. I will be reviewing that soon, along with If I Did It and When The Husband Is The Suspect. My ultimate dream is to team up in a three-way girl-power true crime fighting ring with scarredbyitall and zenithblue.

The White Darkness by Geraldine McCaughrean
An Insatiable Lust for the Antarctic, July 6, 2008

Fourteen year-old Sym is a classic young adult protagonist – the partially deaf social outcast who loses herself in intellectual pursuits and gets the boy in the end. Sym is obsessed with the white darkness of Antarctica, which is the favorite subject of her stand-in father, the wannabe adventurer Uncle Victor. Uncle Victor and Sym share a private world of science and history which makes Sym’s outward life more bearable, especially after the death of her father.

As the story opens, Uncle Victor surprises Sym with an elite tourist expedition to the South Pole. Victor reveals that he is on a quest for Symme’s Hole, a secret, mythical entrance to an underground civilization at the center of the earth. The reader will quickly realize that Victor harms others in his singleminded pursuit of adventure, but our narrator is painfully blind to Uncle Victor’s sociopathic behavior. She passively accompanies him without questioning why he stranded her mother at home, destroyed their cell phone, and drugged their friends on the expedition. As the novel unfolds further, Sym slowly realizes how manipulative and deceitful Uncle Victor has been her entire life, and she is faced with life-or-death survival in the company of a maniac.

THE WHITE DARKNESS is an adventure tale, a romance, and a coming-of-age story. The novel is lyrically beautiful on the subject of the South Pole, but the protagonist’s extreme passivity and lack of awareness renders parts of the narrative slow and frustrating to read. Still, I was hooked by the suspense, and I enjoyed the voyage through this queer, white world.

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 14:45:44 GMT

Baudolino by Umberto Eco

While this book was amazingly well written and detail oriented, I have to say I probably won't read I have to say I probably won't read Eco again. The story seems to lose it's flow when the characters start to go on about the nature of the vacuum and other bits medieval philosophy. It's great from a historical perspective but not so much from a fiction perspective. So I guess I should say it's good, but not my cup of tea.

Bukowski!

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 21:13:29 GMT

If this is spam, I'll totally take it down.

I work for a movie website and as I was doing some research into what films we have buried in our archive, I discovered that we have Bukowski: Born Into This, and figured I'd try to spread the word. The movie deserves to be watched.

Bukowski: Born Into This

x-posted to as many places as humanly possible. :P

A free book up for grabs...

Sat, 14 Jun 2008 06:32:34 GMT

I was given a second copy of Silent In The Grave. It's the only book I've really loved and gone crazy about so far this year. So I am giving a copy away to share the wowness. Details are on my book blog, anyone is welcome to enter. The deadline is 16JUN08.

The blurb: "To say I met Nicholas Brisbane over my husband's dead body is not entirely accurate. Edward, it should be noted, was still twitching upon the floor..."

For Lady Julia Grey, her husband's sudden death at a dinner party is extremely inconvenient. However, things take a turn for the worse when inscrutable private investigator Nicholas Brisbane reveals that the death was not due to natural causes. Drawn away from her comfortable, conventional life, Julia is exposed to threatening notes, secret societies and gypsy curses, not to mention Nicholas' charismatic unpredictability. This sparkling, witty tale is the first in a captivating new series featuring Lady Julia and Nicholas Brisbane.

My original review of the book.

X-posted a bit, apologies if you see it in a few places. :)

Whoa...

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 13:17:19 GMT

Amazon.com to me

Dear Customer:

Starting May 31, 2008, the Borders.com/Waldenbooks.com website is no longer associated with Amazon.com. If you have been a customer of Borders.com/Waldenbooks.com teamed with Amazon.com, you have the option to receive information from Borders/Waldenbooks via e-mail--simply click on the link below and sign up by June 15, 2008:

Sign-up for Borders.com/Waldenbooks.com email notifications
http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=pe_txt_2/?docId=1000233611

If you do sign up, we will provide Borders.com/Waldenbooks.com with your e-mail address to enable them to send you their notices. If you don't sign up by June 15, 2008, we won't share your e-mail address with Borders.com/Waldenbooks.com. The choice you make will not change the messages you receive from Amazon.com.

If you placed an order for an available item from the Borders.com/Waldenbooks.com website teamed with Amazon.com before May 31, 2008, Amazon.com will fulfill that order and provide any necessary customer service associated with that order. If you have any questions about an open order, you can view your order information in Your Account on Amazon.com or find more information on our Help pages here:

www.amazon.com/help
http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/ref=pe_txt_1/?ie=UTF8&nodeId=508510

Thanks for shopping at the Borders.com/Waldenbooks.com website teamed with Amazon.com.

Given Borders' current financial woes, is Amazon cutting its losses, or just being needlessly cruel? And should I spend the rest of my Borders gift card sooner rather than later?

Will Borders survive? Discuss.

various

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 12:03:54 GMT

First, a question: have you actually read "Uncle Tom's Cabin", and what did you think of it?

Then, an update: I have recently read "Against Happiness" and ended up hating the author for his airs of superiority. Anyone else read this, and any thoughts?

Finally, random: tell me what you're reading right now. For me, it's "God's Own Country", which took some getting into, but is now quite engrossing. I'm loving the historical part.

(I'm on vacation and procrastinating, hence the deluge of random questions.)

When the Hubsand Is the Suspect

Mon, 09 Jun 2008 19:07:29 GMT

My guilty reading pleasure is true crime. I tend to like my true crime books of a certain caliber. The latest true crime read was When the Husband Is the Suspect which I didn't realize was written by F. Lee Bailey until I was a few murders in. Realizing that the author is a well-known and controversial defense attorney biased me to the reading. It was one of the stranger reading experiences I've had. I couldn't completely let go of the notion that the author wasn't to be trusted, though I found I liked his writing style. His often morbid and ironic sense of humor sometimes made me laugh and sometimes made me uncomfortable. The humor was needed to cut the darkness of the subject, and when it comes to murder, any jokes made in an attempt to lighten the reading are bound to be black humor. Still.

All of the crimes in the book are about uxoricide, or murder of one spouse by the other. (I am now trying to work that word into all of my conversations, which seems to be making people, my boyfriend in particular, nervous.) The cases range from Sam Sheppard to John Mason, going in order of the year the murders were committed. Many of the cases had similar threads--money as a motive, an unwanted baby as motive, or sociopathology. I liked the way Bailey organzied each chapter, with a timeline of events, an introduction to the players in the case, and a breakdown of the trial and the mistakes made by both lawyers and defendants. This is a defense attorney's view of uxoricide, and it's fascinating.

Some of the murders I was well aware of--Scott Peterson, O.J. Simpson--but others were largely unknown to me. I realized I would be lousy on a jury for a murder charge because I found that I couldn't be sure about guilt or innocence of a defendant in the majority of the cases. Of course not being on a jury, one doesn't get all the details of a trial, and I suspected that sometimes Bailey was leaving things out. The Simpson case was a particularly strange read. I have read a lot about that case and there were things I know Bailey didn't cover. Of course, he couldn't cover everything in a single chapter, which he tells the reader straightaway, but I still felt he was covering details that helped his view and ignoring details that support the other. In the cases Bailey worked, he suggests there is much grey area and that means the defendant was likely innocent or at least shouldn't be convicted. In the cases he did not work, he seems content to assume guilt. In several of these latter cases I was left with doubt. Bailey spends much time writing about the sloppiness of police investigations, until the reader feels that police never properly investigate a crime scene. He also writes about the husband's demeanor after the murder of a spouse and he urges the reader to question the "acting ability" of these men, as in, some of the husbands must be innocent because they would have had to be incredible actors to carry off their nochalant behavior had they just committed a bloody crime. In some ways, I felt like Bailey was trying to coach any future jurors on future murder cases in a way that would benefit a defense attorney. Perhaps this is an unfair assessment of mine.

If you like true crime, Court TV style, then this is a book for you. If anyone else here has read it, I'd love to get your take on Bailey's take.

(crossposted to booktards)

Mon, 26 May 2008 06:13:58 GMT

Librarything

Yes, I am aware that this is old hat to most of you by now. I am also aware that this has probably been discussed before (I am too lazy to look through old entries). I always start this process with good intentions, but I always forget about it in the end. In the past, I have scoffed at productive book loggers with the reasoning, “Do you really need to keep a record of every book you own?” My skepticism has bit me in the ass, I’m afraid. Due to loaning out (SEVEN!!!) books to a friend, I feel the need to keep a record….not only of what I loaned her, but of all my books. I believe that this process will be more successful for me if I had friends, so I am shamelessly encouraging you to be my friend on there. Profile link here

The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher

Sun, 18 May 2008 07:34:13 GMT

I tend to read fiction more than non-fiction but now I am on my second brilliant non-fiction read of the month and felt I should share.

The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher by Kate Summerscale is an account of a real Victorian murder mystery investigated by Jack Whicher, one of the first nine Scotland Yard detectives. In an upper middle class country home, a terrible murder occurred. Three-year-old Saville Kent was discovered dead in a privvy, his throat slashed. A drawing room window had been found open, but it quickly became apparent that no maurading stranger had broken in and committed the dire deed; only one of the family could logically have been the murderer. A week or two passed during which local police bungled the investigation, including "losing" a piece of evidence because it embarrassed their Victorian sensibilities--a blood-stained woman's night shrift that the police assumed was menstrual blood (blushworthy!)--and before Mr. Whicher appeared on scene. Whicher was the basis for many a British fictional detective. Dickens based characters on him as did Wilkie Collins. Unfortunately the Saville Kent murder ruined Whicher's career. Though Whicher was certain he knew which family member was the murderer, he could not prove his case. The press lambasted him. The subtitle of the book is "A Shocking Murder and the Undoing of a Great Victorian Detective."

One of the great pleasures of the book is reading the wonderful Victorian lingo, taken from the historical documents on the case. The book is also a treat for any lover of the Victorian era in general. I myself am obsessed with that time period. Some readers have commented that they found the book "too dry" but I have been eating it up.

The Kent family had its dirty little secrets. The first Mrs Kent was considered mad. Her husband's evidence of her madness was given as: she once got lost while on a walk near the house; she once tore out pictures from a book of his and burned them; and she kept a knife under the bed. Hmm, it sounds more like Mrs. Kent disliked Mr. Kent. One my favorite lines of the book is: "{a physician] confirmed that she was weak-minded. Her physical health was also poor. Samuel Kent continued nevertheless to impregnate her. . ." What else was a Victorian husband with a "crazy" wife to do? Their next four babies died of wasting away (eek!) before Mr Kent employed a governess who took control. After the first Mrs Kent died, Mr Kent married the governess. Shocking! It was the second Mrs Kent's child who was brutally murdered in the night.

This is a must-read for those who adore the Victorian era with all of its double standards--even as the public shrieked over the horror of the murder, they ate up newspaper accounts on it like crazy; and even though Whicher was the only one with a clue (pun intended) of what was going on, they threw him to the wolves.

I am down to the last forty pages and have been prevented by the demands of daily life from reading them. Now that I have duly posted about this wonderful book I am going to curl up somewhere and read the last few pages.

Crossposted to booktards

No Place Safe

Tue, 13 May 2008 20:34:22 GMT

I'm almost done reading a really good memoir, No Place Safe by Kim Reid. She came of age in 1979-early eighties in Atlanta during the time of the child murders there. 26 kids were abducted and killed in the space of about two years. Atlanta was terrified. Well, part of Atlanta. It was young black boys being murdered and as hard as the task force worked to catch the killer, they kept hitting dead ends and more boys kept getting taken, murdered and dumped. White middle and upper-class Atlanta wasn't as concerned about the killings, mainly since it wasn't "their" kids who were getting picked off. But Kim Reid lived mere miles from the places where kids were getting snatched. She went to the malls and skate rinks where some of the boys were last seen alive. She knew many young men who fit the profile of the victims. And Kim knew more about the murders than most girls her age--her mother, a single, black mom who was also a police officer, was a member of the task force.

As the oldest child, Kim was responsible for her younger sister. Her responsibility grew larger as more and more of her mother's time was sucked away by the long, grueling hours of the task force, many of those hours spent interviewing potential suspects and grieving family, and walking through crime scenes looking at the dead and dumped bodies of children. The murders caused Kim Reid to grow up more quickly than she might have otherwise. And while all of this was happening, she was starting school at a mostly white Catholic private school where the same concerns that consumed Kim's life were nothing but a passing blip on the radar for the other students. When Kim asked them what they thought about the murders some knew nothing of them at all while others pointed out that it didn't affect them because the crimes were only happening to poor people. Kim faced racial tension at her new school. Memorably one group of boys I'd like to smack upside the head compared black people to shit, as in "how do black people know when their asses are clean since it's all the same color?" This was in the days before multiculturalism was a large part of the learning structure, and Kim lived two lives: the Catholic school girl who watched her diction, trying to fit in with her classmates, and the girl who came home to her neighborhood where she could "be herself" once again. Her mother played similar dual roles--tough cop and caring mother stretched too thin.

The writing is wonderful, the story of one girl and her family gripping. I highly recommend it.

Crossposted to booktards

Zombie, by Joyce Carol Oates

Tue, 13 May 2008 15:18:49 GMT

I liked this MUCH better than her most recent effort, The Gravedigger's Daughter, which was my introduction to Joyce Carol Oates.

Zombie by Joyce Carol Oates

A deceptively simple novel that tackles a tough subject, February 4, 2008

The protagonist of Joyce Carol Oates's Zombie is thirty-something problem child Quentin P. The son of an accomplished professor, Quentin is on probation for a sexual molestation charge and currently working as a caretaker for his grandmother's boarding property. He struggles daily with his desires for a sexual zombie of his own, a creature who will be a companion without passing judgment or challenging his master. He has attempted crude surgery on several candidates, always taking care to choose victims from the fringes of society, so they will not be missed or connected to Quentin P.

In diary entries, Quentin chronicles his daily life, explaining his dreams to his court-appointed psychiatrist, visiting his grandmother to earn cash for odd jobs, and ducking his father's inquiries. Quentin is as intelligent as he is misguided. He studies one potential victim for weeks, plotting his routines and patterns and getting a thrill off of brief interactions. Quentin quietly awaits the most opportune moment to strike, ensuring he has an alibi for the time of abduction.

The novel climaxes as Oates takes the reader deep inside the mind of a serial killer and sexual sadist as he captures his prey, nicknamed SQUIRREL. Quentin writes, "In a movie there is a FADE OUT, & a FADE IN to a later time. But I could not do that. I did not have that power. I was in Time." The reader is along for the ride, minute by minute, as Quentin fails yet again in his quest for a Zombie, and returns to his makeshift life on the fringes of society, managing to fit in enough to get by undetected.

Fans of this book should pick up Lionel Dahmer's A Father's Story. Dahmer's memoir is the story of the dark journey of a father who was faced with the grisly reality of one of America's most notorious serial murder, mutilation, rape, necrophilia, and cannibalism cases. Both this novel and the memoir humanize the Jeffrey Dahmer's of the world, providing a brief glimpse into the inner machinations of a serial killer.

crossposted to lagizma and booksalon

Tue, 06 May 2008 01:34:57 GMT

Okay. So I'm in a book rut. Does anyone ever have those? I've started about fifteen or so in the past two months and just can't get through anything. And I'm a total book nerd. Sometimes I'll read ten in a month or so - just nonstop, book after book. But, I'm stuck.

So. Is there a book that got you reading again if you've ever had something like this? Help!

Shattered Dreams: My Life as a Polygamist's Wife, by Irene Spencer

Fri, 02 May 2008 13:09:01 GMT

Shattered Dreams: My Life as a Polygamist's Wife by Irene Spencer

A first-rate family history from inside a fundamentalist polygamous sect, February 5, 2008

Shattered Dreams is the autobiography of Irene Spencer, a woman raised in a fundamentalist polygamous sect of the Mormon faith. Irene was raised to honor the Principle (of plural marriage and reverence for the sect leader) to achieve eternal salvation. Despite her own mother abandoning the Principle, and despite a suitor who promised Irene a monogamous, mainstream lifestyle in the LDS church, Irene married a polygamous man in 1953 at the age of just 16. From girlhood through motherhood, Irene grappled with her own mortal desires to have a husband all to herself, to bear only as many children as she could afford, and to achieve stability and financial security. As a member of a polygamous sect, Irene prayed to banish these selfish desires and worked to obey her husband's desire for a kingdom of seven (or more) wives, which would ensure him godhood in his faith.

Polygamy is punishable by ex-communication from the LDS church, so Irene's marriage was a secret from her closest friends and family members until her husband moved Irene and his first wife, Charlotte, to rural Mexico, where they could avoid both LDS scrutiny and the law of the U.S. With their husband Verlan, Irene and her nine sister wives moved across Mexico and South America in search of farming and business ventures that would ensure their survival. She lived in unfinished homes without running water or electricity for most of her life, but she formed a community with the local Mexicans, sharing U.S. surplus clothing and blankets as well as food. Irene even adopted a local abandoned baby who was turned out by the family patriarch. Her stories are humorous and heart-warming, despite the fact that in reality, her family was constantly at the edge of survival. Irene is a terrific storyteller who often ends a chapter with a zinger of a punch-line.

From the title of this book, I expected to read more ruminations on the "shattering" of dreams. Irene's story is no tell-all expose against polygamy. She left the lifestyle after she was widowed, and she has lived in monogamy for the last two decades, but she does not crusade against her former sect. Irene has instead chosen to share the story of a wife and mother struggling to find balance and contentment in life. The reader is left to draw his or her own conclusions from Irene's life of poverty and personal sacrifice. The author does mention inter-sect murders and power struggles, but only in passing, because she was consumed with much more immediate pressures to feed and clothe her thirteen children. Later in her marriage, when her husband courted a new teenaged wife (a girl of only 14 years who was friends with Irene's oldest daughter!), Irene questioned him outright about the girl's suitability for marriage, but finally conceded to her husband's desires and blessed the marriage.

Irene Spencer has written a first-rate family history for her legacy of children and grandchildren (most of whom chose not to live in the Principle). This is a powerful glimpse inside a life that is alien to most Americans.

crossposted to lagizma and booksalon

Finished two books last night

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 17:24:16 GMT

Tipping the Velvet: A Novel by Sarah Waters

I am a sucker for a well researched, well written historical fiction. This is an often overlooked subset. I found the ending with everyone coming together and every loose end being neatly tied up a little bit contrived but otherwise I loved it. I am putting the rest of her books on my amazon wishlist immediately.

The Long Walk by Stephen King (writing as Richard Bachman)

I would've liked to see where the history of this universe diverges from reality. Other than that, it's a well written intense book with an ending that is open to a lot of interpretation. It is unclear whether Garraty dies or goes insane at the end of the Walk. But either way, the reader is left with the feeling that the Big Reward for winning the Long Walk worthless after the physical and mental stress of it take it's toll on the Walkers. I have even heard some people put forth the idea that the dark figure Garraty walks to is Flagg, but I don't see any basis for this really.

I've read complaints that many of the deaths are abrupt and seem rushed. But I think that's in keeping with the story. By the end Garraty is so disconnected from everything and exhausted he is unable to dwell on them and all he can do is "pick 'em and put 'em down."

I started on Baudolino by Umberto Eco on the train this morning.

A query

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 12:15:37 GMT

Hello folks,

I'm looking for collections of linked stories that are connected by being set in the same place. I'm especially interested in books that use this form to explore life in small towns. Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio is the primary example of the sort of thing I'm looking for, although Ursula K. LeGuin's Searoad also fits the bill. I know there are more than just those two books that fit this description, but after those two I start drawing a blank--this is why I'm turning to you for help. Anybody got any recommendations for me? I'll be very grateful for any help.

Two posts in one day. I'm a loquacious guy!

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 19:57:53 GMT

stolen from ysabetwordsmith.

Have you ever read a book that didn't grab you personally, because a bunch of other people were reading it and you wanted to be well-read enough to follow their discussions?

If not, why not?
If so, what book(s)?
About how often do you do this?

Have you ever avoided reading a book because it was popular?

If not, why not?
If so, what book(s)?
About how often do you do this?

Do you believe that the popularity of a book (contemporary or classic) is a valid indicator of its quality? Why or why not?

Celebrities sound off on criminally underrated books

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 13:21:09 GMT

(First off: if any of you are from Britain, please for the love of gods and little fishes, can you find me the complete list?)

The Guardian reported on Waterstone's valiant attempt to get some books they consider underrated and overlooked back into the limelight (though the examples given in the article are, I don't think, either underrated or overlooked... Slaughterhouse 5? The The Dark Is Rising series?). Turns out a bunch of celebrities and the like rose to the defense of some other, much more obscure books-- twenty-five of them. The article in question lists fifteen, which is deeply frustrating-- of the list, I've only heard of a handful, and only read one (Falling Angel, which I recommend just as highly as does Carlos Ruiz Zafon). I want to know what the rest of them are!

So, since you lot are the celebrities of LiveJournal bookdom, I propose we come up with a similar list. (Are there twenty-five of us? I hope so.) What's the one book that you cherish, but that's so obscure, forgotten, or what have you that you don't think any of us will have heard of it from anyone but you? (Because, after all, if we haven't heard of it, the rest of LiveJournal will be utterly clueless. Count on it.) Spend a few sentences expounding on why you think everyone and their mothers should read a book no one's heard of; though I loathe David Mitchell's novels, his description of how he ran across Cees Nooteboom's novel The Following Story sent it right to the TBR stack. Anyway, I figure if we can come up with such a list, we can start throwing it like a Molotov cocktail at other book communities and see if anyone bites, y'know?

Since I'm here and typing this, I'll go first:

---

xterminal: Wendy Walker's The Secret Service. A local university has a massive used book sale every year, and the final day (the first Tuesday in June, for those of you who roadtrip to such things) is box day-- five bucks for a box of books, and they define "box" as anything you can carry over the threshold without assistance. (Yes, it has occurred to me to show up in a wheelchair, which would bugger the definition of "assistance" and allow me to use 18x18x18s....) Under those circumstances, judging a book by its cover-- or cover burbs-- gets a hell of a lot easier. You're paying (I'm paying, anyway), on average, about seven cents a book if you package well. I'll take a lot more chances for seven cents than twenty-five bucks. So I often throw in books I know nothing about. This was one of them, back in '98 or '99. I'd never heard of the author. Knew nothing about the book. But hey, seven cents. Some months later, after I'd promptly forgotten it, I started using mass transit to get to and from work, which added an hour and a half of reading time per day. (Yeah, we have the best mass transit system in the nation, according to some magazine that obviously doesn't know what it's talking about.) I was looking for thicker, more involved books to pass the time, and boom, there was The Secret Service. So I tossed it in the bag one day and started reading it on the train... then missed my stop and was very late for work. I was entirely captivated by Walker's alternate-reality Victorian England, which is, even in this time of alternate-reality historicals and steampunks and the like, entirely unique; the best way I can describe it is a kinder, gentler, better-written analogue to A Song of Ice and Fire. Given my regard for Martin's magnum opus, that's really saying something; from the standpoint of Walker's writing style, I consider it one of the handful of perfect novels in the English language. Every page is a linguistic treasure; it well reflects the two decades(!) Walker spent writing it. Her literary heirs are the mythpunks; if you're a fan of the Prime Books catalogue (Sonya Taaffe, Catherynne Valente, K. J. Bishop, Anna Tambour, Jeannelle Ferreira, etc.), Walker will be right up your alley. And if you're not familiar with the Prime Books catalog, you bloody well should be. Though, granted you should be familiar with Walker, as well. It's an exceptionally difficult read, because of the thickness of the language, but the difficulty is well worth braving for the reward; this is a fantastic novel in every respect.

---

okay, who's next?

Hell's Angels: A Strange and Terrible Saga

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 16:58:07 GMT

Hell's Angels: A Strange an Terrible Saga by Hunter S. Thompson

I have heard that the Democratic National Convention in '68 was a turning point for HST. It shows in this book, published in '66. It doesn't have a lot of the biting cynicism that I have come to love in his work. That doesn't mean I didn't find the book fascinating and enjoyable to read. His insight in the the Hell's Angels is fascinating and has one of the the best descriptions of them I have ever read "Knight errants for a religion from which they have already been excommunicated." The brilliant prose is still there, but those looking for the Thompson they know and love may want to read his later works.

Books 85-128, Pages 15,579-24,328

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 19:30:04 GMT

85. 3/1/2008 Case Closed, vol. 11 Aoyama, Gosho **** (Amazon)
86. 3/4/2008 Happy Hour Is 9 to 5: How to Love Your Job, Love Your Life, and Kick Butt at Work Kjerulf, Alexander *** (not available at Amazon-- read online free at positivesharing or buy at lulu)
87. 3/4/2008 Fog Cooney, Caroline *** (Amazon)
88. 3/4/2008 Curses Huizenga, Kevin **** (Amazon)
89. 3/5/2008 $tud: Adventures in Breeding Conley, Kevin *** (Amazon)
90. 3/5/2008 Why I Hate Saturn Baker, Kyle **** (Amazon)
91. 3/12/2008 Duma Key King, Stephen **** (Amazon)
92. 3/14/2008 Eldest Paolini, Christopher **** (Amazon)
93. 3/15/2008 Rose Lee, Li-Young **** ½ (Amazon)
94. 3/15/2008 One Piece: The Crap-Geezer Oda, Eiichiro *** (Amazon)
95. 3/16/2008 North Pole Was Here, The: Puzzles and Perils at the Top of the World Revkin, Andrew C. **** (Amazon)
96. 3/17/2008 Carolina Ghost Woods Jordan, Judy **** (Amazon)
97. 3/18/2008 Owly: The Way Home and the Bittersweet Summer Runton, Andy **** (Amazon)
98. 3/18/2008 One Piece: I Won't Die Oda, Eiichiro **** (Amazon)
99. 3/18/2008 Dust Radio Files, Gemma **** (not available at Amazon)
100. 3/19/2008 Man Who Saw His Own Liver, The Smith, Bradley R. ** (Amazon)
101. 3/19/2008 Bent Under Night Files, Gemma *** (not available at Amazon)
102. 3/19/2008 Owly: Just a Little Blue Runton, Andy **** (Amazon)
103. 3/19/2008 Owly: Flying Lessons Runton, Andy **** (Amazon)
104. 3/20/2008 So Many Books, So Little Time: A Year of Passionate Reading Nelson, Sara **** (Amazon)
105. 3/20/2008 Death by Zamboni Katzman, David David *** (Amazon)
106. 3/22/2008 One Piece: Tears Oda, Eiichiro **** (Amazon)
107. 3/22/2008 Case Closed, vol. 12 Aoyama, Gosho *** (Amazon)
108. 3/23/2008 Dangerous Games Aiken, Joan *** (Amazon)
109. 3/24/2008 Splay Anthem Mackey, Nathaniel **** (Amazon)
110. 3/24/2008 One Piece: Okay, Let's Stand Up Oda, Eiichiro **** (Amazon)
111. 3/24/2008 One Piece: The Meanest Man in the East Oda, Eiichiro **** (Amazon)
112. 3/26/2008 Renegade's Magic Hobb, Robin **** (Amazon)
113. 3/26/2008 Dreaming, The, vol. 1 Chan, Queenie *** (Amazon)
114. 3/27/2008 Telltale Lilac Bush, The, and Other West Virginia Ghost Tales Musick, Ruth Ann *** (Amazon)
115. 3/27/2008 Days of Uncertain Health, The Fincke, Gary **** (Amazon)
116. 3/27/2008 Case Closed, vol. 13 Aoyama, Gosho *** (Amazon)
117. 3/28/2008 Sorrow Alegria, Claribel ** (Amazon)
118. 3/28/2008 Deathwatch White, Robb **** (Amazon)
119. 3/28/2008 Ryan and Jimmy and the Well in Africa That Brought Them Together Shoveller, Herb *** (Amazon)
120. 3/28/2008 Dreaming, The, vol. 2 Chan, Queenie *** (Amazon)
121. 3/29/2008 Exit Wounds Modan, Rutu **** (Amazon)
122. 3/29/2008 Gospel of Barbecue, The Jeffers, Honoree Fannone * (Amazon)
123. 3/29/2008 Case Closed, vol. 14 Aoyama, Gosho *** (Amazon)
124. 3/30/2008 Magnetic North Gregerson, Linda *** (Amazon)
125. 3/31/2008 When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit Kerr, Judith *** (Amazon)
126. 3/31/2008 Tenderness Oates, Joyce Carol ** (Amazon)
127. 3/31/2008 Four Senses of Dante Alighieri in Film Frolov, Andre ** (Amazon)
128. 3/31/2008 Fountain, The Aronofsky, Darren *** (Amazon)

Title links to go to my reviews, Amazon links go to Amazon. Helpful votes at Amazon appreciated for helpful reviews, especially since it seems my "ooh, I hate you!" gremlin has returned. Mike Gravel for President! This space for rent. Crossposted to the usual places. Do you use glazed hams, especially hams with an "unconventional" glaze like, say, apricot, when making ham and cheese sandwiches? If seven hundred monkeys typed for seven hundred years, the resulting pages would still be more readable than most press releases for vanity publications. Dance, little frog, dance!

Salon Circle: The Commoner book discussion is posted a week

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 04:31:52 GMT

Because your moderator has not effectively managed her time this month (and because Norman Mailer's The Executioner's Song is a million places long), our Salon Circle discussion of The Commoner is delayed a week.

1. Because Haruko is a commoner, not a peeress, the Crown Prince chooses to break with tradition in selecting her to be his bride. Why does Haruko’s father tell Dr. Watanabe that Haruko would be a “humiliation to Japan”? What is Dr. Watanabe’s response? How is this break with tradition later echoed in the marriage of Haruko’s own son?

2. Before her wedding, Haruko stares at her own face in a mirror that once belonged to her grandmother. When she light–heartedly asks her father if he will be happy when she is gone, he replies with great seriousness. Later, when Haruko returns to her parents’ home for a visit, Haruko’s father excuses himself from the table. Haruko finds him staring at the mirror she has left behind. Why does Haruko state, “We both understood that an evening like this was impossible and would never happen again”? What is the significance of the mirror Haruko chose not to include in her trousseau?

3. As Haruko prepares for her wedding, she observes, “At every turn, sometimes subtly and sometimes crudely, the same lesson was driven home: the world would greet me with abject deference not because I deserved it or wished it but because of my station, which in all things would stand above me, and indeed would outlast me.” What is Haruko’s attitude toward assuming her position in the royal family? Why do her parents ultimately urge her to accept her new life with courage?

4. How does Haruko experience the wedding ceremony inside the Kashikodokoro? How does she feel as she joins the Crown Prince in the shrine? Why does Haruko believe the crows on the roof of the shrine mock “the foolishness of men”?

5. What causes Haruko’s “breakdown”? Why is Yasu kept from her during this time? How does Haruko’s visit at her parents’ home affect her?

6. When Yasu first proposes marriage to the accomplished Keiko Mori, she refuses him. Haruko meets with Keiko and tells her that if Keiko marries Yasu, Haruko will do everything she can to protect her within the royal family. Haruko relates, “Riding home alone from our secret meeting late that afternoon, some gathering sense of responsibility for this young woman’s future happiness clung to me; and it felt not like triumph, but already, somehow, like remorse.” Describe Haruko’s inner conflict over Keiko’s decision. Feeling as she does about her own life, why do you suppose Haruko is willing to persuade Keiko to accept Yasu’s proposal?

7. How does Miko’s visit affect Haruko? Why does Miko confess that after seeing Haruko’s photograph in a magazine years ago, Miko had been a coward? Why does Haruko say, “Talking with you now is like remembering how to eat”?

8. As they watch their son’s wedding ceremony on television from their residence, how do Shige’s and Haruko’s reactions differ? How does Haruko feel about her husband’s indifference? Do you believe she truly loves him?

9. After the birth of her daughter, Keiko takes refuge in Karauizawa. When Yasu undertakes a trip to Europe without her, the royal family claims Keiko is suffering from an “adjustment disorder.” How does Keiko respond when Haruko visits her at Karauizawa and tells her, “You must take Reiko away from here and never come back.” Do you believe this is good advice? After convincing Keiko to marry Yasu in the first place, why is Haruko now suggesting Keiko flee? What does this tell you about Haruko’s state of mind?

10. In the closing pages, Haruko’s driver Okubo hands her an envelope marked with two cranes in flight. What does Haruko learn about where her daughter–in–law and granddaughter have gone? How does she feel about their disappearance? Describe the significance of this event for Haruko. To what degree does the book’s ending resolve Haruko’s own internal conflict?

[

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Because your moderator has not effectively managed her time this month (and because Norman Mailer's <i>The Executioner's Song</i> is a million places long), our Salon Circle discussion of <i>The Commoner</i> is delayed a week.

<lj-cut text="Questions under here...">1. Because Haruko is a commoner, not a peeress, the Crown Prince chooses to break with tradition in selecting her to be his bride. Why does Haruko’s father tell Dr. Watanabe that Haruko would be a “humiliation to Japan”? What is Dr. Watanabe’s response? How is this break with tradition later echoed in the marriage of Haruko’s own son?

2. Before her wedding, Haruko stares at her own face in a mirror that once belonged to her grandmother. When she light–heartedly asks her father if he will be happy when she is gone, he replies with great seriousness. Later, when Haruko returns to her parents’ home for a visit, Haruko’s father excuses himself from the table. Haruko finds him staring at the mirror she has left behind. Why does Haruko state, “We both understood that an evening like this was impossible and would never happen again”? What is the significance of the mirror Haruko chose not to include in her trousseau?

3. As Haruko prepares for her wedding, she observes, “At every turn, sometimes subtly and sometimes crudely, the same lesson was driven home: the world would greet me with abject deference not because I deserved it or wished it but because of my station, which in all things would stand above me, and indeed would outlast me.” What is Haruko’s attitude toward assuming her position in the royal family? Why do her parents ultimately urge her to accept her new life with courage?

4. How does Haruko experience the wedding ceremony inside the Kashikodokoro? How does she feel as she joins the Crown Prince in the shrine? Why does Haruko believe the crows on the roof of the shrine mock “the foolishness of men”?

5. What causes Haruko’s “breakdown”? Why is Yasu kept from her during this time? How does Haruko’s visit at her parents’ home affect her?

6. When Yasu first proposes marriage to the accomplished Keiko Mori, she refuses him. Haruko meets with Keiko and tells her that if Keiko marries Yasu, Haruko will do everything she can to protect her within the royal family. Haruko relates, “Riding home alone from our secret meeting late that afternoon, some gathering sense of responsibility for this young woman’s future happiness clung to me; and it felt not like triumph, but already, somehow, like remorse.” Describe Haruko’s inner conflict over Keiko’s decision. Feeling as she does about her own life, why do you suppose Haruko is willing to persuade Keiko to accept Yasu’s proposal?

7. How does Miko’s visit affect Haruko? Why does Miko confess that after seeing Haruko’s photograph in a magazine years ago, Miko had been a coward? Why does Haruko say, “Talking with you now is like remembering how to eat”?

8. As they watch their son’s wedding ceremony on television from their residence, how do Shige’s and Haruko’s reactions differ? How does Haruko feel about her husband’s indifference? Do you believe she truly loves him?

9. After the birth of her daughter, Keiko takes refuge in Karauizawa. When Yasu undertakes a trip to Europe without her, the royal family claims Keiko is suffering from an “adjustment disorder.” How does Keiko respond when Haruko visits her at Karauizawa and tells her, “You must take Reiko away from here and never come back.” Do you believe this is good advice? After convincing Keiko to marry Yasu in the first place, why is Haruko now suggesting Keiko flee? What does this tell you about Haruko’s state of mind?

10. In the closing pages, Haruko’s driver Okubo hands her an envelope marked with two cranes in flight. What does Haruko learn about where her daughter–in–law and granddaughter have gone? How does she feel about their disappearance? Describe the significance of this event for Haruko. To what degree does the book’s ending resolve Haruko’s own internal conflict?

[<a href="http://www.randomhouse.com/doubleday/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780385515719&view=rg"link to source</a>]

Denied

Thu, 20 Mar 2008 18:35:56 GMT

I haven't read Sebastian Horsley's memoir, Dandy in the Underworld but I read today in the NY Times online that the author, who was supposed to go on a U.S. book tour, was denied entry to the U.S. because of his past drug use and (I presume) conviction in Britain for drug-related crimes.

From the article, Lucille Cirillo, a spokesperson from US Customs said, “travelers who have been convicted of a crime involving moral turpitude (which includes controlled-substance violations) or admit to previously having a drug addiction are not admissible.”

Wow, moral turpitude. Sounds serious. What do you guys think about this?

I love memoirs and would probably have gone to hear this guy speak had he been in my area. So many artists have wrestled with drugs that it seems almost a requirement for the modern memoirist. (I exaggerate, but it does seem like the majority of memoirs are about a) my rotten childhood, or b) my nightmarish descent and eventual recovery from drugs, alcohol, overeating, you name it, or c) both.) One memoir I particularly loved was In My Skin by Kate Holden, an Australian woman's tale of her addiction to heroin which led her into prostiution. Highly recommended, by the way. I'd love to hear Kate Holden speak, and it sounds like she would be also be denied entry to our country if she were to try to come over. This pisses me off as I don't feel I need to be protected from these writers, especially since they write from a stance of recovery.

Has anyone read Dandy in the Underworld or In My Skin for that matter?

Discuss!

Edited to add: Oh boy. Here's some more food for thought. I finished reading the article and came across this:

"British public records are not available in the United States, and it was not possible to verify independently many of the details in Mr. Horsley’s memoir.

In interviews, though, he has been repeatedly coy about what is real and what is contrived. “It’s better to be quotable than honest,” he told Time Out London in February. In an interview with The Independent last September, he said: “I don’t speak, I quote. I am a fraud. I have cobbled together my personality from hundreds of little bits. I am simultaneously the most genuine and the most artificial person you will ever meet.”

What is up with writers who make up their memoirs? I know it sells, but it also infuriates me to find out that these "true stories" aren't so true. What the hell does it mean to "cobble together" your personality? Okay fine, we all have a million little things that make us "us" but to say it's better to be quotable than honest?! Fiction is quotable too. Fiction is also honest in its own way. Here we have a memoirist who freely says, "I'm a fraud." Umm, okay. Thanks for the story, fraud. What gives?

Dracula

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 00:25:51 GMT

I finally finished Dracula and I've waited a week or two to post a review/thoughts because I wanted it to sink it. I also didn't know where to start.

My reviews will never be as coherent or smart or frequent as LaGizma's, but... something is better than nothing!

First, I should say that I'm a huge vampire nerd, but not necessarily a vampire-book nerd. I read some of the Anita Blake series, had to put down I Am Legend because it gave me nightmares, and haven't actually read any of Anne Rice's stuff, though they are on the list somewhere. I stick to vampire movies, and games (points if you know VtM, and have played it...) Of all monsters, vampires are my favorite.

So, THE vampire book seemed like a good idea. And at first it was. I stole my sister's copy, and it was illustrated by Edward Gorey. We were off to a good start.

I consider the book in several parts: Jonathan's stay at Castle Dracula, Mina and Lucy together, Lucy's illness, After Lucy's Death, and The Final Hunt. Each part is a little worse than the last.

The first section of the book consisting of Jonathan Harker's journals during his stay at Castle Dracula were incredible. There were spooky-enough parts for me to go turn extra lights on, and even the extra details (exactly what he had for dinner that night) gave it a sense that this was some guy's journal.

Next was correspondence between Mina and Lucy. It was around this point in the story when I realized why my sister was sighing at me for saying I wanted to read Dracula. Had this novel been required reading, I would have been fucked. I would have never had the assigned pages done by class time, as I frequently picked up the book, read a single page, got frustrated with Van Helsing, and put it down for another week and a half.

However, a class might have helped me understand what there is to love about this book, at the same time. I was reading GoodReads reviews, and people just rave about all of the significance. All I can see is the sexism of the time, and how Mina is actually the smartest and most capable of the group, yet is constantly left out of the action because of her womanly sensibilities. Its this exclusion from the men's reindeer games that leaves her vulnerable to attack by the monster. I don't even know if this was planned on the part of the author.

In the end, the book became a chore for me. I needed to finish it before I started anything else because I knew I would never get through if I dared to give myself something a little more exciting. I found the ending to be rather anti-climatic, since so much time is dedicated to hunting the monster and so little given to the actual conclusion. I was happy when Quincy died.

Next time I try to conquer a classic, I'll bring a reader's guide along for the ride.

Uninvited by Justine Musk, plus info about the Salon Circle reading club

Mon, 10 Mar 2008 20:28:48 GMT

My review of moschus's new novel is here!

Also - here's a shameless plug for a monthly book club feature we're doing called Salon Circle. If you are interested in reading John Burnham Schwartz's The Commoner for March, come join us.

Uninvited by Justine Musk

4/5: A dark, gothic novel in a glitzy, sunny climate, February 22, 2008

Justine Musk's sophomore novel Uninvited is a paranormal fantasy set in the lives of a pair of Southern California high school siblings. It's a dark, gothic novel in a glitzy, sunny climate. Musk succeeds at crafting a plot which is just realistic enough to be thoroughly creepy even from a comfortable armchair.

The story centers on an otherworldly uninvited guest who roams Earth in discontent amassing souls. The winged, shape-shifting man entered the lives of Kelly and Jasper Ruland on the night that Jasper walked away the sole survivor of a horrific car accident. Kelly's memory of the evening is hazy, but ever since the crash, the high school student has been alienated and depressed, turning to club drugs for relief. She yearns for a re-connection to her brother while she tries to sort out the ghostly happenings surrounding her family, leading to a climax in which she discovers the truth about the foggy night of the car crash.

Uninvited is a beautiful book to behold. I bought it because I am a fan of Justine Musk, but I daresay that the silvery tribal arabesque pattern on the cover might have attracted me on sight alone.

Cross-posted to booksalon, hipsterbookclub, booktards and my personal journal lagizma. Cross-posted like a motha because I love author Justine Musk and I wanted to get the word out about Salon Circle

Damage Control: Women on the Therapists, Beauticians, and Trainers Who Navigate Their Bodies

Mon, 10 Mar 2008 20:13:43 GMT

Damage Control: Women on the Therapists, Beauticians, and Trainers Who Navigate Their Bodies
edited by Emma Forrest

Editor Emma Forrest bravely tackles a new facet of feminism in Damage Control--women writing unabashedly about the primping and refining they undergo not just for themselves, but for their partners, their professions, and for acceptance in society as a whole. The book is divided into five sections--hair care, beauty, therapeutic/surgical modifications, massage, and waxing. It's a good undertaking with some remarkable reads but, unfortunately, Forrest has far less than one book's worth of quality material, and much of the text is just filler that loosely relates to the overall theme.

Frances Lia Block wrote the standout piece in the collection. In her seven-page essay (one of the longest in the book), she confesses to body image discomfort that let her to a therapist who encouraged plastic surgery. Block is a thin, delicate, pale woman who was markedly disfigured by her surgical and laser treatments. With a few years of hindsight and the maturity that comes with motherhood, Block learned to accept herself, and undergo minor treatments only to repair the most physically uncomfortable of her previous body modifications (sinus repair, for example). As a fan of the fantastical, spunky, beautiful worlds Block creates in her fiction, I was surprised to learn about her own lack of self-confidence. I was comforted knowing that she is just like the rest of us.

Other delightful essays include the tale of a freelance author (Samantha Dunn) who was forced to cut her beauty budget in lean times. Image is everything in Los Angeles, however, so when Dunn's stylist found out, she immediately arranged for the author to perform custodial duties in exchange for salon services. The gratitude and elation Dunn felt from this arrangement is truly heart-warming, reminding all women to look out for one another. (Proceeds from this book, in fact, benefit the Women for Women organization, which can be located on the World Wide Web.)

The book also contains a number of beauty tips and tricks, from the best $25 cheapo blow-out in NYC (see Rose McGowan's essay), to the top Persian Beverly Hills waxer to the stars (Soraya), and to the $12 pedicure by a workaholic Vietnamese manicurist struggling to stay alive with a fancy salon across the street (see essay entitled "Jane and Joy"). Overall, I recommend this title, but be prepared to skim through some of the filler material.

February: Books 60-84, Pages 11,269-15,5786

Mon, 10 Mar 2008 16:45:52 GMT

As expected, February was slacker month-- too cold to go outside and read, so I bulked up on movies instead. I also got hammered by starting to read Barth's Church Dogmatics, which, at a chapter a day (most days), took up well over half my reading time for the month. But I still got a few done...

60. 2/1/2008 Black Cocktail Carroll, Jonathan **** (Amazon)
61. 2/3/2008 Hipster Haiku Adcock, Siobhan ** (Amazon)
62. 2/4/2008 Across the Creek Terry, Kaaren ** (Amazon)
63. 2/4/2008 Mystery of Mars, The Ride, Sally *** (Amazon)
64. 2/5/2008 Death Ride at Euclid Beach Bellamy II, John Stark *** (Amazon)
65. 2/6/2008 Dim Sum: The Art of Chinese Tea Lunch Blonder, Ellen Leong **** (Amazon)
66. 2/6/2008 We All Die Alone Newgarden, Mark ** (Amazon)
67. 2/6/2008 Meerkat Mail Gravett, Emily **** (Amazon)
68. 2/8/2008 Fine Place to Daydream, A: Racehorses, Romance, and the Irish Barich, Bill **** (Amazon)
69. 2/8/2008 Three Paradoxes, The Hornschemeier, Paul *** (Amazon)
70. 2/12/2008 Brothers Are All the Same Milgram, Mary *** (Amazon)
71. 2/15/2008 Not Quite Camelot Dunne, Jennifer *** (Amazon)
72. 2/18/2008 Slither Lee, Edward *** (Amazon)
73. 2/21/2008 Lazybones Billingham, Mark **** (Amazon)
74. 2/23/2008 Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth Ware, Chris * (Amazon)
75. 2/23/2008 Lenore: Wedgies Dirge, Roman **** (Amazon)
76. 2/24/2008 Bleach: Be My Family or Not Kubo, Tite **** (Amazon)
77. 2/25/2008 Fool Moon Butcher, Jim *** (Amazon)
78. 2/27/2008 Case Closed, vol. 9 Aoyama, Gosho **** (Amazon)
79. 2/27/2008 scars on th seehors Bissett, Bill zero (Amazon)
80. 2/28/2008 Case Closed, vol. 10 Aoyama, Gosho **** (Amazon)
81. 2/28/2008 Words Written Backwards Files, Gemma **** (not available at Amazon, buy it from Burning Effigy Press instead)
82. 2/28/2008 We3 Morrison, Grant ***** (Amazon)
83. 2/28/2008 Golem's Mighty Swing, The Sturm, James *** (Amazon)
84. 2/29/2008 Here Comes Whirlaway! Broadhead, Fred *** (Amazon)