61 posts tagged “book reviews”

I started off the month with two books that got their own posts, The Mystery of Edwin Drood by Charles Dickens and My Abandonment by Peter Rock.  Then I settled in and read four additional books before the month ended.  Here are my quick thoughts on those:

Pride and Prejudice--Jane Austen
After reading the silly zombie mayhem version and watching the BBC miniseries featuring the dreamy Jennifer Ehle, reading the original "classic" version of Jane Austen's novel came as a huge disappointment.  It was just about the dullest thing I've ever plodded through. 

Dressed For Death--Donna Leon
This was the third book in Donna Leon's Commissario Guido Brunetti Mystery series.  I take one of these with me whenever I travel.  Dressed For Death is my favorite in the series so far.  Three down, fifteen to go.

The Purple Cloud--M.P. Shiel
This book was written in 1901.  I don't remember where I heard about it, but it's one of those post-apocalyptic stories I usually enjoy so much.  In this one, the first successful expedition to the North Pole results in a purple cloud of toxic gases that floats around the world and kills everybody on the planet...except for the explorer who unleashed the cloud in the first place.  He doesn't realize what's happened until he makes it back to civilization and finds bodies all over the place.

What would you do if you were the last person on Earth?  I'm not exactly sure what I'd do, but it would probably involve finding a food and water supply, a library, and a comfortable couch.  The explorer from The Purple Cloud is a bit different than me.  He builds himself a castle made of gold and surrounds it with a moat full of wine.  Then he goes around to all the major cities and burns them down.  Finally, he ends up in Constantinople (not Istanbul) where he makes a shocking discovery.

Well, at least it was shocking to him.  I saw it coming a mile away.  It was pretty obvious to me where things were going.  It'll probably be obvious to you, too.  That doesn't mean The Purple Cloud isn't worth reading, though.  In fact, I'd say it was on par with most of the H.G. Wells I've read.  Put it on your list if you're into early science fiction.  Maybe if you're lucky you'll find a copy like mine; it cost $2, had bite marks on the cover, and featured a full color ad for Kent Menthol cigarettes between pages 64 and 65.  Classy.

Under the Dome--Stephen King
I read Stephen King's The Stand earlier in the year.  I loved it...until it started to get stupid about two thirds of the way through.  The Hand of God coming down to set off a nuke was the single worst ending of any book I've ever read.  Oh, that previous sentence was a spoiler.  I'd say I was sorry, but I just saved you 1,000+ pages.

Under the Dome is another one of Stephen King's epic 1,000+ pagers.  It starts off great, with a mysterious, invisible dome suddenly appearing over a small Maine town.  Planes and trucks wreck into the dome.  Entire flocks of birds break their necks on its surface.  One unlucky woodchuck gets chopped in two.  In the middle of all this confusion, King's greatest villain appears on the scene.  He's not a clown who eviscerates children.  He's not a murderous vampire.  The thing that's truly scary about Jim Rennie is that he's just a regular man.  He's real.  He doesn't have any supernatural powers at all, and yet he makes Randall Flagg from The Stand look like an amateur.  Jim Rennie is the town's Second Selectman.  He's an elected official who waddles around spewing Bible verses to back up his evil deeds.  He says his new policies are for the good of the town, but he uses the dome and the fear that results for his own benefit.  Take George W. Bush, mix him up with Boss Hogg from The Dukes of Hazzard, and then add a sharp intellect.  That's Jim Rennie.

The rest of the book is about Jim Rennie's power-grab and its disastrous consequences.  It only takes a few hours before the situation in the dome turns into a complete "clustermug" (his term).  Most of the townspeople go along with Jim Rennie, but as the book progresses, a few stand up against him and his regime...a few people who know that human rights and due process don't disappear just because they're living in a snow globe.  The final battle between good and evil is, in a way, reminiscent of The Stand.  There's a big difference, though.  Under the Dome stays strong all the way through.  It doesn't fall apart at the end.  Stephen King pulls it off.

As a book snob, I'm kind of embarrassed to admit this, but Under the Dome might just be my favorite book of the year.  

CURRENTLY READING:
Love in the Ruins--Walker Percy

Peter Rock's My Abandonment is the first book read in my Book Club by Proxy project.  That's the one where I read other people's book club books for them.  AmyH told me about this book.  I probably wouldn't have bothered except the book was only 225 pages long and the blurb on the back sounded interesting.

My Abandonment is the story of a thirteen year-old girl named Caroline who lives in the woods outside of Portland with her father.  Caroline and her father get by pretty well when you consider that they live in a hobbit hole.  Their lives are shattered when a jogger stumbles upon their home and reports them to the authorities.

I must admit that this book took me by surprise.  I read it as a joke and wasn't expecting much, but My Abandonment was an exciting, well-written story that was a pleasure to read.  It was a damn good book.  It's actually one of the highlights of my literary year.  I would highly recommend this book to you, AmyH, or anyone else with a few hours to spare and an interest in quality reading.

What follows is the portion of the post dealing with cheating at book club.  It starts out with my in-depth synopsis of My Abandonment's eight chapters and then ends with a couple talking points that should convince others that you've read the book.  The thing to remember here is that what follows will absolutely ruin the book for you.  Do not proceed if you have any interest in reading the book for yourself.

The Happy Days in the Forest Park (p. 1 - 48): Caroline and her father live in the woods outside of Portland.  Caroline is thirteen; her father is a veteran who has bad dreams about helicopters.  They've got an underground dwelling full of sleeping bags, a chess board, and Caroline's toy horse, Randy.  They keep to themselves, but once a week they put on their city clothes and go into town.  They go to the library, the Safeway, and stop by the post office for the father's government check.  One day a jogger accidentally stumbles upon their camp while Caroline is lounging in a tree.  The jogger tries to talk to Caroline, but she stays in her tree and hides.  The jogger returns a few days later with the police, a canine unit, and a man named Jim Harris.  Caroline's father is arrested and Mr. Harris takes Caroline.

Getting Caught and Put in the Building (p. 49 - 76): Mr. Harris drives Caroline into the city.  During the drive, she makes reference to a foster family and a younger sister.  Mr. Harris turns Caroline over to a woman named Jean Bauer at some sort of detention center.  This woman cleans the girl up and gives her some new clothes.  Then she subjects Caroline to a series of physical and psychological exams.  She determines that Caroline is is good shape for a girl who has been living in the woods for years.  Miss Bauer eventually returns Randy the Toy Horse and gives Caroline her own room...one that looks out on her forest.

Living on the Farm (p. 77 - 110): After a chapter apart, Caroline and her father are reunited outside the detention center.  The police drive them out to a horse farm owned by a man named Mr. Walters.  He's agreed to employ Caroline's father on his farm.  In addition to the job, Mr. Walters is allowing Caroline and her father to stay in the bunkhouse on his property.  Things are looking up.  Caroline meets some neighbor boys and thinks they might turn out to be friends.  She gets her first bicycle.  She's excited about starting real school in the fall.  Her father isn't doing as well, though.  He starts to get paranoid and begins to imagine people spying on them from behind hay bales.  He tells Caroline to pack her old backpack.  As the chapter ends, the two sneak out to the bus stop in the middle of the night.

Living on the Streets of the City (p. 111 - 134): Caroline and her father head back to the woods, but that turns out to be a bad idea.  They then decide to hide out in public...where they walk on opposite sides of the road and communicate with umbrella signals.  Caroline gets a haircut and dye-job.  She and her father set up camp in an abandoned hotel.  Caroline's father starts doing "deliveries" for a mysterious man named Vincent.  You can tell he's a villain because he has a pointy beard.  Guys with pointy beards are always bad.  Caroline gets recognized by Taffy, a girl she met at the detention center in Part Two.

Escaping Down Through the Snow (p. 135 - 160): Caroline's father is getting even more paranoid, and he decides they need to hop a train out of town.  The only thing is that he's never done it before and he falls off the train as he tries to board.  They opt for a bus.  Caroline's father gets angry at her when she talks with a woman on the bus.  He forces the bus driver to let them off in the middle of nowhere on a snowy night.  They sleep outdoors and try to keep warm at a thermal spring.  The next day they break into a cabin.  Caroline recognizes all the books in one of the rooms.  She used to have the same books when she lived with her foster family.  They spend the night in the cabin and then use snowshoes and a sled to travel to the nearby town of Sisters, a town that Caroline's father seems to know.

Losing Father in the Cave (p. 161 - 192): Caroline and her father hike out of town, but are soon lost in a sudden snowstorm.  They stumble upon a yurt and join a woman and very weird boy inside.  The four of them spend the night in the yurt.  In the morning Caroline and the very weird boy go out for a sled ride and the two adults stay inside to talk things over.  The woman eventually comes out wearing a wig and Caroline's father's backpack.  She gives Caroline's snowshoes to the very weird boy and the two of them head off.  Caroline goes back into the yurt to find out what's going on.  Her father is dead.  It appears that he has been electrocuted or burned by the yurt's heating mechanism.  Not knowing what to do, she puts her father's body on the sled and wanders around in the snow.  She stumbles upon a keg party taking place in a cave.  She hides her father's body and joins the party.  She waits until the party breaks up and then brings her father's body into the cave.  Sitting by the fire, Caroline thinks back and remembers when she first met her father.  She remembers how he took her from her foster parents' backyard in Boise.  She remembers how he handcuffed her in a hole while he joined the search party to look for her.  She remembers how he changed her named to Caroline.  She remembers how she used to see her picture on missing posters.

Boise (p. 193 - 210): Having left the man's body in the cave, Caroline heads for Boise.  She walks around freely, knowing that nobody will recognize her now that's she's grown and looks different.  She walks by her old house and then goes to her former elementary school where she sees her sister Della.  She follows Della for awhile and then goes over to a cemetery.  She can't find the headstones she's looking for.  She takes the bus to the mall where a couple girls follow her into the bathroom and try to talk with her.  They run for their mother when they notice that Caroline's foot is bleeding all over the place from frostbite.  Caroline runs out the emergency exit.

There is Not Much to Say (p. 211 - 225): Time has gone by.  Caroline has left Boise and returned to the town of Sisters.  She gets her GED and studies at the community college.  She becomes a part-time librarian.  She also gets a job as caretaker at a rich man's house.  He's rarely there and doesn't mind that Caroline lives in a yurt on his property.  She compiles her thoughts and journals into eight sections and types them up at the library.  She finds out that Randy the Toy Horse is actually a Chinese acupuncture model.

Something to Discuss in Your Book Club:  Perhaps the book's most important sentence takes place on page 222 when Caroline writes about the book she's writing about her experiences with her father.  She says, "I remember the conversations as best as I can.  If I make up words he says at least they're close or taken from his notebook.  I stitch it together and I only add what I have to.  If I don't remember something I skip over it and leave it out."  Is Caroline a reliable narrator?  Do these sentences change your thoughts on what you've read in the earlier chapters?  What do you think Caroline added to her book?  What do you think she skipped over or left out?

Smart-Sounding Thing to Memorize and Regurgitate at Your Book Club:  Did anyone else here find this book reminiscent of the work of independent film director, Kelly Reichardt?  I certainly did.  Rock's Portland-area setting combined with his protagonist's fascination with canines, brought to mind Reichardt's 2008 film, Wendy & Lucy.  Should a film adaptation of My Abandonment be in the works, I think she should definitely be in the running to direct.  I can already see Will Oldham in the role of "Nameless".  I love the irony of a man with so many nicknames portraying a nameless character.  Hah hah!

The Mystery of Edwin Drood--Charles Dickens

Edwin Drood is a young orphan engaged to be married to another young orphan named Rosa Bud (saddled with the unfortunate nickname of "Pussy").  They live in Cloisterham, an ancient English cathedral town littered with tombs, a lime pit, and a series of spooky underground vaults.  Edwin goes missing.  He is last seen with his rival, the hot-headed Neville Landless.  Edwin's watch and shirt pin are soon found in the nearby river and suspicion is thrown upon Neville.  Most boisterous in his accusations against Neville is a man named John Jasper.  In addition to being Edwin's guardian, John Jasper is also Rosa Bud's music teacher and something of secret opium fiend.  Isn't that always the case?

Did Neville kill Edwin Drood or was he set up by John Jasper?  Did Jasper kill his own ward so he could have Pussy all for himself?  Did he toss Edwin's body in the lime pit and then throw his possessions in the river?  And who the heck is Dick Datchery, the mysterious white-haired gentleman with the gigantic head who shows up shortly after Edwin's disappearance?  Dickens hints that Datchery might be one of the other characters in disguise.  Is it Edwin?  Is it Neville?  Is it Neville's cross-dressing twin sister, Helena?  Could it be Bazzard, Tartar, Grewgious, or any of the book's other strangely-named characters who never appear at the same time as Datchery?

We'll never know.  Charles Dickens died before he could finish The Mystery of Edwin Drood.  He didn't leave any notes and he didn't tell anyone how he intended to finish the book.  The story is told that he offered to let Queen Victoria in on the ending (during a private reading), but she turned him down.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies--Jane Austen
The problem I had with Pride and Prejudice and Zombies isn't the fact that some hack added zombies into a classic; my problem is one of logic and storytelling.  According to the book, the zombie uprising began over 50 years ago.  And yet, hordes of fresh zombies are still rising from their graves on a daily basis.  The description of these zombies leads me to believe these aren't old corpses who have just now come back to life after years beneath the ground.  These are people who died and were recently buried.  Which poses the question: why the hell are the people of zombie-infested England still burying their dead?  Why don't they chop off their heads and burn the bodies like any halfway-decent zombie fighter would do?  Fifty years have gone by.  Shouldn't they have figured that one out by now?

On the positive side, P&P&Z was a fun book and piqued my interest in the real Pride and Prejudice.  I'm currently in the middle of the BBC miniseries starring Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle.  I've also acquired a non-zombie edition of the book which I intend to read sometime soon.

The Professional--Robert B. Parker
Chasing the Bear--Robert B. Parker
The Professional is Robert B. Parker's 37th Spenser novel.  I've read them all and always look forward to the next release.  This one was decent, but Spenser is turning into a bit of a wuss in his old age.  He catches his perp about halfway through The Professional, but instead of beating him up or having Hawk shoot him like he used to do, Spenser takes the guy out for drinks.  Then Spenser gets together with his always annoying psychologist girlfriend, Susan Silverman.  The two of them try to figure out why the perp behaves the way he does.  Who cares?  Just break his arm and be done with it.

I somehow missed the release of Chasing the Bear earlier this year.  It's the first "Young Spenser" novel.  It sounds like a horrible idea, but it actually made for a much better read than The Professional.  A fourteen-year old Spenser is still under the heavy influence of his father and two uncles and hasn't yet been wussified by Susan Silverman and her Harvard PhD.  Surprisingly good stuff.

The Fugitive--Marcel Proust
Finding Time Again--Marcel Proust
These are the sixth and seventh volumes in Proust's In Search of Lost Time.  The seven books have all blurred together in my mind, and I honestly can't remember what happens in The Fugitive.  I think it has something to do with Marcel's reaction to Albertine's death.  I remember the final volume, though.  In Finding Time Again, Marcel goes to a party and notices that all his friends have grown old.  This causes him to realize that he must be aging, too.  He comes to the conclusion that if he's ever going to write a really, really long novel about his life, he'd better hurry up and start now or else he'll end up dying before he has a chance to finish.

It Feels So Good When I Stop--Joe Pernice
I still don't know what to make of Joe Pernice's novel.  I'm glad I read the book, but there were large portions of it that I didn't enjoy reading.  There was far too much Gen-X blathering for my tastes, particularly in the flashback portions dealing with the unnamed narrator's roommate and ex-wife.  And some of the writing was just bad.  I never would've imagined that Joe Pernice could write a sentence that would rub me as wrong as this one did:

As she shifted her weight, I could see the musculature of her peasant calves at work beneath her animated skin.

In Joe's defense, it wasn't all bad.  I particularly enjoyed the portions of the book that dealt with the narrator's relationships with his young nephew and the filmmaker from down the street.  I'm also happy to say that there were occasional glimpses at the skill with words that has made Joe Pernice one of the best songwriters of the last decade.  I specifically liked the part where the narrator realizes he'll have to ride his sister's childhood bicycle into town:

On the far side of the clothes-dryer vent, against the toolshed, leaned the forlorn Huffy Sweet Thunder bicycle Pamela had gotten for her tenth birthday.  I sized it up, encouraged by the legend of the great George Jones piloting a ride-on mower miles into town to score booze.  George Jones is a genius, and I am not.  It was only fitting that I should have to pedal a child's dilapidated toy.

As far as I'm concerned, that right there is good stuff.  Sure, the novel as a whole was hit or miss, but there were enough good parts to make it worth my time.  There are a lot of books that I would recommend to people before this one, but I would highly recommend the all-covers soundtrack album Joe recorded to accompany his novel.  It's far better than the book itself.  

Skeleton Crew--Stephen King
I find that Stephen King's stories are scary until he shows his monsters.  Take the first story in this collection, for instance.  "The Mist" is downright spooky as a terrific storm knocks out the power in a small Maine community.  A man and his son find themselves trapped in the supermarket as a strange mist rolls into town.  But then a bunch of pterodactyls start flying around and the whole story falls apart.

Despite the occasional unnecessary glimpses behind the curtain, a lot of the stories in Skeleton Crew were up there with King's best short work.  My personal favorites were "Word Processor of the Gods", "Survivor Type", and "The Reach".

Manhood for Amateurs--M-----l Chabon
The full title of this essay collection is Manhood for Amateurs: The Pleasures and Regrets of a Husband, Father, and Son.  I think this book was designed to be given to men for Christmas and Father's Day.  I'm not usually into essays, but I bought this anyway because Joseph-Beth Booksellers had a signed copy for 30% off.  Now that I've read it, I'm probably going to give it (yes, the same copy) to my dad for Christmas.  I was very careful to avoid banging it up or crinkling the pages.  I'm going to remove the 30% off sticker, though.  He'll never know.  Hah hah!

Where the Wild Things Are--Maurice Sendak
The Wild Things--Dave Eggers
According to the inscription written inside the cover, I got my copy of Where the Wild Things Are for my third birthday.  It was one of my favorites as a kid.  My copy smells a bit of mold from living in the basement for too many years, but it's still a great story.  I dug it out and gave it a quick read before diving into the recent furry novelization by Dave Eggers.

The original book consisted of a mere 338 words (yes, I counted) and Dave Eggers expanded that source material into 285 pages.  He keeps with the spirit of the original, but expands on everything and adds entirely new characters and settings.  The wild things themselves each have individual names and personalities.  The one I always liked as a kid is now named Carol.  He's pretty cool, but like the rest of the wild things in the novel, he appears to have some major mental issues.  It's kind of weird.  It's a good book, though.  I read it on my front porch on a surprise one-day Indian summer.  It was one of my most pleasant reading experiences of the year.  And the book was covered in fur!  Did I mention that?

CURRENTLY READING:
The Mystery of Edwin Drood--Charles Dickens

The Prisoner--Marcel Proust
Five books into In Search of Lost Time and the narrator is finally given a name.  Surprise, it's "Marcel".  In this one, Marcel spends all his time and energy making sure his girlfriend doesn't have sex with women.  I've been enjoying my slow journey through In Search of Lost Time, but about halfway through The Prisoner, I wanted to write myself into the story, show up at Marcel's front door, and give him a swift kick in the ass.  His jealous nature and overall wussiness are starting to get annoying.  Fortunately, I only have 682 more pages.

Nobody Move--Denis Johnson
Nobody Move is a novella originally published in a literary journal (I'm not familiar with) called Playboy.  The book is a modern-day western full of gun fights, double-dealings, and the occasional bit of cannibalism.  Although it doesn't come close to Johnson's Already Dead or Tree of Smoke, it was a fun read and definitely worthwhile for a fan like me.

Stone's Fall--Iain Pears
Stone's Fall is divided into three parts.  The first takes place in London in 1909.  A small-time journalist named Matthew Braddock is hired by Elizabeth, Lady Ravenscliff to find the identity of her recently deceased husband's illegitimate child.  Her husband, John Stone, was a successful financier and arms dealer who died after falling out of a window.  While investigating, Braddock discovers that large quantities of money have been disappearing from Stone's companies.  The financier also appears to have had connections with anarchists, spiritualists, and an enigmatic character named Henry Cort, who may or may not be the most dangerous man in the British Empire.

The second part of the book takes place in Paris in 1890.  It deals with Henry Cort's backstory, introduces a prostitute named Virginie, and looks into the various relationships of John Stone...all while a complicated international banking conspiracy looks to destroy the Bank of England.

The final section of the book takes place in Venice in 1867 and deals with John Stone's early career, his affair with a woman in Italy, and the truth about the mysterious illegitimate child that got the entire story started in the first place.

Stone's Fall is on my shortlist for best book of the year.  Although I'd read all ten of Iain Pears' other works of fiction, I wasn't sure I'd enjoy Stone's Fall as it takes place in the world of international finance and arms dealings.  That sounds dull, but the book turned out to be one of the best-written historical mysteries I've ever read.  As soon as I finished it, I turned back to page one and started over.

Nightmares & Dreamscapes--Stephen King
This is Stephen King's third collection of short stories.  It wasn't as good as his first, but it was still worth the $2 I paid for it.  I could've done without King's lengthy ode to Little League baseball, but most of the other stories made for good late night reading.  My only complaint is that a lot of them were 40-50 pages long, which is about twice as long as I'd like from the "story before bed" genre.  I had to spread some of the stories out over two nights.

The highlights for me were "Dolan's Cadillac" (revenge), "The Moving Finger" (something's in the sink), "Home Delivery" (zombies are taking over), and "Crouch End" (London is scary).  I also liked the first half of "You Know They Got a Hell of a Band", but thought the story fell apart when Buddy Holly started bleeding out his eyeballs.  The low points of the collection were "It Grows on You" and "My Pretty Pony".  I still don't know what he was going for with those two. 

Hard to Admit and Harder to Escape--Sarah Manguso
How the Water Feels to the Fishes--Dave Eggers
Minor Robberies--Deb Olin Unferth
These three volumes came in a slipcase entitled One Hundred and Forty-Five Stories in a Small Box.  That pretty much sums it up right there.  The stories enclosed represent the sub-genre known as the "short-short story".  I read a book each day for three days.  Sarah Manguso's book was the best, but my favorite individual story was "No One Knows" by Dave Eggers.  It solves, once and for all, the mystery of how a record player works.

Damnation Alley--Roger Zelazny
In this book, a criminal named Hell Tanner is hired by the Nation of California to drive a car across the post-apocalyptic wasteland that once was the United States.  His mission is to deliver plague serum to the people of Boston.  His car is tricked out with armor, missiles, machine guns, flame throwers, and a coffee maker.  The cross-country drive brings him into contact with a whole bunch of crazy-ass shit, most of which he blows up with the aforementioned arsenal.

Damnation Alley is a 250 page book printed in the largest font I've seen since elementary school.  I read it in a couple hours without getting up from the couch.  File this one under "stupid but fun". 

Fusion: An Inspiration--Bill Cranfield (editor)
I don't know if I should include this book as it only featured one page of actual writing.  All the other pages were full of graffiti art, strange advertisements, fancypants toys from Japan, etc.  It was pretty cool to look through.  Making it even better, the book came with a strange vinyl figurine with sunglasses and a monkey on his shirt.

CURRENTLY READING:
The Fugitive--Marcel Proust
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies--Jane Austen

Savage Night--Jim Thompson
The Killer Inside Me--Jim Thompson
Jim Thompson was an author of mean, hard-boiled crime novels, many of which were eventually adapted for the big screen.  Savage Night and The Killer Inside Me are two of his more famous efforts.  The former is about a very short hit man assigned to knock-off a Mob associate.  The latter is about a small town Texas sheriff who murders people in his spare time.  Both were exciting and fun to read, but neither of them had good endings.  Both books fell apart in the last few pages.  The endings might've been impressive and shocking when they were originally published in the early 50s, but they both seemed kind of laughable to me.

When I'm Old and Other Stories--Gabrielle Bell
I read a borrowed copy of Gabrielle Bell's first collection of comics back in the spring.  I liked it enough then that I decided to get my own copy.  I got it for my birthday and promptly reread it.  I think my favorite story is "Graveyard Shift", which features a giant waitress who stomps around the streets of San Francisco eating hipsters. 

Night Shift--Stephen King
The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon--Stephen King
I read The Shining as a teenager, but didn't bother to read any more Stephen King until McSweeney's published his brilliant novella, "A Very Tight Place", in Issue #27.  That story got me interested in the author again.  I read The Stand, but decided soon after finishing the 1,000+ page book that my time would be better spent if I switched over to King's shorter works.  Night Shift was Stephen King's first collection of short stories, so I decided to start there.  I was very impressed.  With the exception of a ridiculously stupid story called "The Lawnmower Man", all of the stories in Night Shift were worth reading.  My favorites were "Jerusalem's Lot", "The Ledge",  and "Children of the Corn".

I got the pop-up version of The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon just because I thought it was fun to see a paper version of the pitcher peek out from behind a bush in the section called "Sixth Inning".  The book was a good, quick read and featured some very impressive, complicated pop-ups.  The story was edited down from King's original 200+ pages, but there was enough left to spook me a tiny bit.  If I ever see a cheap copy of the original book, I'll probably buy it.  

A Canticle For Leibowitz--Walter M. Miller
I was really enjoying this post-apocalyptic classic until the main character got shot in the head with an arrow and eaten by hillbilly mutants about a third of the way through.  I must say I was very surprised by this unexpected plot twist.  I found out a couple pages later that A Canticle For Leibowitz is actually a collection of three interrelated novellas.  I had just reached the end of the first when the surprise attack and devouring took place.  Once I figured out what I was reading (three novellas vs. a novel), I was able to put the shock behind me and complete the other two sections of the story.

Overall, A Canticle For Leibowitz was a good, thought-provoking book and one I'm glad I took the time to read.  I got bogged down in places with all the Latin passages and religious mumble-jumble, but I guess that's to be expected in a book about monks.  Despite the boring religious parts, I think A Canticle For Leibowitz is the only science fiction classic I've read that actually lives up to its reputation.  Pardon me, but Robert Heinlein can suck it.

CURRENTLY READING:
Nightmares & Dreamscapes--Stephen King
Stone's Fall--Iain Pears

BOOKS READ:
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets--J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban--J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire--J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix--J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince--J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows--J.K. Rowling (reread)
I already wrote about my sudden and unexpected fascination with all things Harry Potter, so I'm not going to say anything else except that I don't understand why Voldemort went to all the trouble in The Goblet of Fire.  If all he wanted to do was get Harry to touch a portkey, couldn't he have chosen one made from something simple like Harry's glasses or shoes?  Why the year-long rigmarole with the Triwizard Tournament?

How to Make Books--Esther K. Smith
I also already wrote about how I folded, cut, and stitched my way to a one-of-a-kind book, so I'm not going to go into much detail on this one either.  The book got very complicated about halfway through, but the instructions for the first few books were easy to follow.  Ever since I read this one, I've been folding museum maps, postcards, and junkmail into tiny books.  I've got a box full of them and it's been a lot of fun.

The Beekeeper's Apprentice--Laurie R. King
Let's just imagine for a second that Sherlock Holmes was a real person and the stories that Arthur Conan Doyle wrote about him were fictionalized versions of real events.  Then let's imagine that the real Sherlock Holmes retired from detection and became a beekeeper.  That's the basic premise for Laurie R. King's The Beekeeper's Apprentice.  Holmes is out on the fields examining his bees when he's almost stepped on by a girl with a book.  The girl is Mary Russell, an American orphan.  She's not your typical teenager, though.  She has deductive powers that (almost) equal those of Holmes himself.  They become friends.  They have adventures.  They are involved in an incredibly confusing gun battle that I didn't fully understand even after reading it six times and reenacting it with a partner.

Although I enjoyed The Beekeeper's Apprentice, I don't think I'll continue with this series (now on its ninth book).  By the end of the book, I had the feeling that the author was paving the way for Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes to begin a sexual relationship.  I have no interest in reading such things.

The New Smithsonian Book of Comic Book Stories--Bob Callahan (editor)
I bought this one at a Friends of the Library book sale.  I couldn't believe they were selling it for $8 until I started reading it and got to "Part Two: Silver Age of Superheroes".  Oh, man, that was 78 pages of crap.  I'm also sick of R. Crumb, Gary Panter, Neil Gaiman, and both of the Hernandez brothers.  And I have no interest in reading excerpts from Watchmen in black, white, and grey.  Give it to me in color, you cheap Smithsonian bastards.

On the plus side, it was cool to read another chapter of Art Spiegelman's Maus.  I really should just buy myself a copy of that book.  I've read about half of it in anthologies.

B is for Beer--Tom Robbins
This book is subtitled "A Children's Book for Grown-ups/A Grown-up Book for Children".  Tom Robbins is so clever.  He also hasn't published a really good book since 1990's Skinny Legs and All.  I keep buying them, though.  I keep reading them.  This one's about a girl named Gracie who gets drunk on her sixth birthday and learns about beer from the Beer Fairy.  Then she dances with a monkey.

CURRENTLY READING:
The Killer Inside Me--Jim Thompson
When I'm Old and Other Stories--Gabrielle Bell (reread)

I read a lot of books in June.  For awhile there I was reading over a hundred pages each day.  I started off with Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita and then joined a three-person bookclub to read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.  It was strange as I'd never read any Harry Potter books before.  You can read my thoughts on the Bulgakov and Rowling books here.  This post is dedicated to what I read during the rest of the month.  It includes coverage of a couple surprise favorites and the most disappointing issue of McSweeney's in the entire history of the publication. 

Remainder--Tom McCarthy
A man gets knocked on the head by a mysterious object that falls from the sky.  Although he's brain damaged and has lost some of his memory, he knows enough to sue the company responsible for the mysterious object.  He wins millions.  Instead of living like a rock star or saving Africans, the protagonist uses the money to help recreate his fuzzy memories.  For example, he remembers looking at a crack in a bathroom wall while the smells of liver cooking and the sounds of piano playing waft up from below, so he goes out and buys an apartment building, recreates the cracked wall, and hires a woman to fry liver and a man to play piano.  He then uses even more money to re-enact his recreations.  This goes on and on until he decides to re-enact things that haven't happened yet.  That's when things get weird.

I bought Remainder a couple weeks ago when I was shopping at Half Price Books with my cousin.  He'd read and enjoyed it and recommended the book to me.  I'd never read a recommendation from him before, so I thought I'd give it a try and then judge him based upon how much I liked the book.  Remainder had a bit of Chuck Palahniuk-ish ending, but the rest of the book was so well-written and impressive that I was willing to overlook it.  It was definitely an odd book, but I look forward to reading whatever else McCarthy has written.  I also need to ask my cousin for some more recommendations.  

Northline--Willy Vlautin
Willy Vlautin is best known as the primary singer and songwriter in Richmond Fontaine.  Well, he's also published two novels.  The author's second novel is about a young woman who leaves Las Vegas and moves up to Reno to escape her abusive boyfriend.  She gets a couple jobs and tries her best to get on the right track.  It's hard, though, as she drinks too much, is prone to passing out, and is haunted by her past mistakes. 

I picked up Northline and read the first two pages in the bathroom.  I was hooked.  I went downstairs, sat on the couch, and proceeded to read the remaining 189 pages without taking a break.  It was non-stop reading.  I probably could've put the book down and done something else, but I really didn't want to.  I wanted to read Northline more than I wanted to do anything else I could think of.  My copy of the book came with an instrumental soundtrack CD performed by the author and one of his bandmates.  I don't usually find background music to be conducive to reading, but this CD was absolutely perfect for this book.  I listened to it seven times in a row.  There's nothing I enjoy more than good music and good reading.

McSweeney's #31--Dave Eggers (editor)
This issue is designed to look like a high school yearbook.  Instead of being full of forgotten people I no longer care about, it's dedicated to archaic literary forms I never cared about.  McSweeney's #31 is full of nivolas, biji, pantoums, and consuetudinaries as written by modern day authors.  It sounds like a fun idea, but the results are incredibly boring.  Douglas Coupland did alright with his biji, but the rest of the stories and poems included weren't worth the time it took to read them.  This issue is, by far, the worst issue of McSweeney's ever.  It was a chore to get through and I would highly recommend avoiding it at all costs.  Dave Eggers, please stop letting your interns publish pet issues.

Death in a Strange Country--Donna Leon
This is Donna Leon's second book in her popular Commissario Guido Brunetti Mystery series.  The case involves the death of a young man found floating in the canals of Venice.  Commissario Brunetti gets called in and quickly realizes that the case is much more than the simple mugging it appears to be.  Further investigation ensues.  He never does get around to actually solving the case, but he was in way over his head on this one.  I'm sure he'll solve the case in the third book, Dressed for Death.  I plan on reading it as soon as I find it in mass market paperback.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone--J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was good enough to make me consider going back to read the "prequels".  I probably would've forgotten all about it except that I found an unread boxset of the first four books for only $9.98.  At a price like that, I just couldn't say no.

After the gigantic Deathly Hallows, the 300 page Sorcerer's Stone was a quick and easy read.  It took me about two days to get through it.  It was a lot of fun to find out more about the characters I met at the end of the series.  I now know what happened to Harry's parents, how he ended up with the Dursleys, and how he met Hagrid, Draco, Ron, Hermione, etc.  I've already begun The Chamber of Secrets.

Cloud Atlas--David Mitchell
Okay, let's get this straight.  Cloud Atlas is made up of six stories of approximately 80 pages each.  Five of the six are divided in half.  The first half of each of these stories are printed in order.  Then the sixth story is printed in its entirety.  Then the second half of the first five stories are printed in reverse order to round out the book.  The first story you begin is actually the last story you finish.  But there's more.  The characters in the second story read the first story.  The characters in the third story read the second, etc.  It's enough to rattle your brain if you think too hard on it.  Here, look at this...it'll make sense of everything:

CURRENTLY READING:
How to Make Books--Esther K. Smith
The New Smithsonian Book of Comic Book Stories--Bob Callahan (editor)
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets--J.K. Rowling

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows--J.K. Rowling
Homebody and Hotrod and I decided to read the seventh and final Harry Potter book together.  We followed each other's progress in a comment thread over on Homebody's Vox.  Those two had each read The Deathly Hallows before, but the book was a new one for me.  In fact, the entire series was new for me; although I'd seen the first couple movies, this was my first experience with the Harry Potter books.  I'd always avoided them because I am something of a book snob, but thought it would be a fun reading experiment to jump in at the very end.  Would I get anything out of the book without any real knowledge of what took place in the first six volumes?  How much back story did I need to follow along?  What the hell is a Muggle?

Well, I can honestly say that I didn't have any problem starting at the end and going from there.  I'm sure Homebody and Hotrod had more rewarding reading experiences due to their familiarity with the series as a whole, but there was more than enough there to make the book worthwhile for a reader new to the series.  There were a couple things I didn't immediately understand (Horcruxes, Harry's connection with Voldemort, etc.), but I was able to get them cleared up by my fellow book club members...although Hotrod's input often added to my confusion.

But anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.  It was surprisingly literate and mature for a book I thought had been written for kids.  J.K. Rowling even used a few words I had to look up in the dictionary.  I'm not sure I'm going to pick up the first book and start the series from the beginning, but if I ever see a cheap, used copy in good condition, I wouldn't be surprised if I bought it.  Even a book snob can change his ways.

The Master and Margarita--Mikhail Bulgakov
This is my favorite book read so far in 2009.  In it, the Devil and his entourage (including a talking cat that walks upright) show up in 1930's Moscow and wreck havoc on Russia's literary scene.  The Devil holds a magic show where he decapitates the emcee and gives away loads of free money and clothing to the audience.  Of course, his gifts eventually disappear and the members of Moscow's high society are left naked trying to pay their cab fares with bits of ruble-shaped newspaper.  The Devil offers Margarita a chance to be the queen of his grand ball.  She accepts and gladly turns into a witch by stripping down and rubbing cream all over her body.  She flies around town naked and then goes to entertain the Devil's guests at the party.  Then the Devil helps Margarita bust her boyfriend out of the insane asylum.  The boyfriend, the Master of the title, is an author devastated by the failure of his novel about Pontius Pilate.  Bits of that novel are interspersed between the scenes of 1930's Moscow.  Some more stuff happens.  People go nuts.  People get killed by trolley cars.  A man gets turned into a flying pig.  Buildings burn (but manuscripts don't).  I don't want to spoil it.

CURRENTLY READING:
Cloud Atlas--David Mitchell

I already wrote the Stuff I've Been Reading post for May, but then I accidentally went and read three more books before the month ended.  There are still a couple days left before June begins--and I suppose I could read another book over the weekend--but I've seen into the future and I know that I'm not going to get any reading done in the next couple days.  I'm going to watch the entire second season of The Doctor House Show.  I'm also going to drink a lot of iced coffees and maybe go to the record store.  But anyway, here are three more books for the month of May: 

In Persuasion Nation--George Saunders
In Persuasion Nation is the third short story collection by real life genius, George Saunders.  All three of his collections make for fantastic, enjoyable reading, but In Persuasion Nation didn't impress me as much as Pastoralia and CivilWarLand in Bad Decline did.  I actually found one of the stories to be a bit on the boring side.  "Commcomm" was still better than most short stories written by other authors, but it definitely stood out as one of Saunders' weakest efforts.  The fact that it was the last story in the collection sort of colored my opinion of the book as a whole.

Of course, I am willing to admit that I might've just missed the point of "Commcomm".  George Saunders is, after all, a real life genius.  I am not.  I was supposed to be one, but it turns out that I was misdiagnosed.

Breaking & Entering--Joy Williams
Breaking & Entering had an intriguing synopsis and sounded like an interesting book.  Who wouldn't want to read about a young married couple who drift around Florida breaking into vacation homes?  Willie and Liberty live in the homes for a few days and then move on.  That sounds like fun, right?  That sounds like a worthwhile read.

Nah, the couple only broke into two homes and the rest of the book was downright snoozy.  Most of the time they just sat around with their freaky white dog and thought about their depressing lives.  Willie was pompous and everything he said sounded like it came out of a fortune cookie.  Liberty couldn't get over the fact that her parents abandoned her when she was a kid.  There was some stuff about retardation, animal mutilation, abortion, and suicide.  Depressing.  And then they broke into a house and met a 75 year-old female bodybuilder.  Willie disappeared near the end of the book and I have no idea what happened to him.  Then a minor character got stabbed and that was it.

I found Breaking & Entering on the $2 shelf.  Now I know why.   

Serious Drawings--Marc Johns
Marc Johns is a Canadian artist who used to be on Vox as Draw.  He dumped his Vox blog earlier this year in favor of his own fancypants website.  (It's worth a look, and unlike Vox, you don't have to wade through tons of smut and spam to get to the good stuff.)  I bought a couple of Marc's ink & watercolors back in the Vox days, so I had to buy a copy of his new book to see if either of my purchases made the cut.  I'm happy to say that "Shoot the Rabbit" is on page 59 of Serious Drawings.  Of course, that's just a printed representation of the original.  The real one is sitting on a shelf in my room.  I feel like such a hip art collector now.  I think I'm going to start smoking a pipe.  Or maybe I'll get some of those big hoops and stick them in my earlobes.  Maybe I'll do both.

But anyway, Marc Johns is great and his book is definitely worth picking up.  It's super cheap on Amazon, but if you buy a copy directly from the artist, he might scribble something arty on the front page.