I love hearing from authors and publicists who’d like me to read and review their books. If you have a title you think I’d be interested in, please feel free to contact me at ibetnoonehasthisdamnid@yahoo.com .
For more information about what books I like and how I choose which books to review, check out Mt. TBR's review policy.
I look forward to hearing from you!
A book I’ve been dying to get finally came in the mail today: xxxHOLiC volume 1 by Clamp. xxxHOLiC is my favorite anime… I like it even better than Fruits Basket, can you believe that?!
This what’s on my desktop:
and then, lo and behold, it’s like page 2 of the book. 😀 The picture makes me giggle because Watanuki has neko ears (or are they fox ears, maybe?) and a chain attached to his neck and Yuko is holding onto it. She soo OWNS him. *gigling some more*
If you’ve not seen the show or read the books, the picture may be pretty, or may even disturb you, but if you have seen it, then you totally get the pic!
Quick summary of the story:
Watanuki sees spirits, and those spirits chase, harrass, and attack him. He accidentally (or, is destined, depending on your take) finds his way to Yuko, who promises to grant his wish and rid him of the spirits, but it will cost him. He has to work for her until the debt is paid off. He cooks, cleans, serves and does her shopping, and in the process he learns a great deal about himself, the world around him and about helping people.
I like the philosophy and treatment of the supernatural in xxxHOLiC, as it is very similar to my own.
So, do you believe in destiny, that your steps in life are prearranged? Do you believe everything is chance and choice? A mixture of both?
“If you have something to say, then say it,” said Meridia. “I know you’ve been talking to Mama behind my back.”
A smile slow and calculating parted the girl’s lips. The liveliness in her eyes extended to her mouth, which now took on a delight almost to fiendish for her thirteen years.
“You’re wearing… the necklace Mama gave you. You wear it three, four times a week.”… Malin’s laugh leapt up with contempt. “You’re just like the rest of them. So easily fooled. When I first met you, I thought you had it in you to stick it to her…. Can’t you see how cheap that necklace is? I wouldn’t be surprised if she fished it out of a garbage bin. And yet you wear it like it’s the most precious thing you own.”
“I wear it because I like it. Mama was generous enough to give it to me.”
“Have you listened to yourself lately? Every other sentence you say is ‘ Mama this and Mama that.’ It makes me sick to hear you go on! Well, she’s not your mother and she never will be. Why do you bend to her every wish? Why does everyone? If you only knew the things she says behind your back.”
–Of Bees and Mist by Erick Setiawan, pages 128-129
Of Bees and Mist by Erick Setiawan is descibed on the back of the book as an adult fable, and I had to Google “fable” to understand how they could call it this, as my previous understanding of the term was “a short story told for the purpose to entertain an audience while teaching them a life lesson.” You know, “Moral of the story is…” But Of Bees and Mist is not a short story, and I’m not exactly sure if it’s got a moral.
According to Google, there are two specific definitions of “fable” that can apply to this book:
A fable is a succinct story, in prose or verse, that features animals, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature which are anthropomorphized.
A story about mythical or supernatural beings or events.
In Of Bees and Mist, Setiawan tells the story of two families of strong matriarchs who are brought together by the marriage of Daniel and Meridia. Eva, Daniel’s mother, is a larger-than-life personality with poise and charm and sweeps everyone up into the palm of her hand by her charisma. Once in her grasp, however, she expects them to do her bidding and never argue or suffer the consequences. She takes particular aim at her own husband, Elias, as well as her youngest daughter, Permony, of whom she has always seen as competition for her husband’s affection. She continually nags, berates and cajoles them for differing reasons and effects. With Elias, she peppers him with swarming bees at all hours, particularly at night when he’s trying to rest (she naps during the day so she can keep at him) until he breaks from exhaustion and flies off the handle. As to Permony, Eva treats her as the whipping girl and gets out her frustration and irritation on the young girl. When Meridia comes along and takes up Permony’s cause, expresses her own opinion and shows herself to be both beautiful and intelligent, Eva can’t stand it. She levels her sights to destroy her new daughter-in-law.
The second mother in the equation is Ravenna, who has gained a reputation in their small town as not being quite right in the head. A great deal of the time, Ravenna lives in her own world, mumbling her own private language to herself while constantly cooking for no one in particular. She lives her life behind a veil of forgetfulness, hiding from a past no one will talk about. However, occasionally she finds her way to the surface, and is a force to be reckoned with. Her essence and spirit has lasting power and Meridia is able to sustain herself in between Ravenna’s moments of sanity. Whereas Eva has a vile and evil presence that drives people to bitterness and contention, Ravenna has a soothing and calming effect, bringing peace with her and driving out Eva’s bees. It is between these two women that the battle of Good versus Evil seems to play out.
Along with the bees that pour from Eva’s lips to attack those at whom she directs them, there are other supernatural elements. There are the three different mists that are characters in their own right in the book. The white mist that encases the house that Meridia grew up in which keeps it the temperature and hearts within the home cold. The yellow mist that comes in the evenings to take Gabriel, Meridia’s father, away to his mistress’s house and the blue mist that brings him back in the mornings. There is a ghost that inhabits the mirrors, as well as fireflies that visit, protect and guide Meridia, and roses and marigolds that seem to war for dominance over Eva’s lawn. AND, there is Hannah, Meridia’s best friend from childhood, who returns for visits with her as an adult when times are hard for her. No one ever sees Hannah, but I don’t think she’s Meridia’s imaginary friend.
The worst evil Eva commits is to make a deal with a man whom she knows is wicked to marry her daughter in order to profit monetarily from the match. Worse yet, when her daughter confesses to discovering the man to be part beast (a pig-man), and to raping young girls in their basement, Eva sends her back to him. Telling her daughter she doesn’t want a scandal surrounding her name. For Eva, saving face and her pride are her most precious treasures.
Honestly, Of Bees and Mist by Erick Setiawan is a complex story with many facets. One of the things I found most amazing was that Setiawan hung so many guns on every room of a mansion in this book, and fired them all. There are no strings left untied, everything was used. Another thing I was impressed by reading Of Bees and Mist is the difference in storytelling between Western and Eastern cultural style. This book really showed off the Oriental thought process of fluidity, connectivity and moments of experience, whereas in the Occidental custom, storytelling and philosophy is linear and cause-and-effect. Because of this, Of Bees and Mist doesn’t follow the “this-then that-then that happened” but was more like friezes in the lives of the characters within, with the balance of their lives being weighed out in the end.
I may re-read this book later… I haven’t decided. There were just so many aspects of the story that I think I’d could still get more out of it. Overall, Of Bees and Mist by Erick Setiawan is a fantastic story that sweeps the reader along. I was surprised how much time and pages went by as I read. Though I’m not exactly sure why I’m not giving this a 5 out of 5, it’s still a great book, and so I’m giving it 4 1/2 out of 5 stars.
Miscellaneous: You Suck is a sequel to Moore’s book Bloodsucking Fiends.
It turned out that superhuman vampire strength came in handy when shaving a thirty-five-pound cat. After a couple of false starts, which had them chasing Chet the huge shaving-cream-covered cat around the loft, they discovered the value of duct tape as a grooming tool. Because of the tape, they weren’t able to shave his feet. When they were finished, Chet looked like a big-eyed, potbellied, protohuman in fur-lined, duct-tape space boots — the feline love child of Gollum and Dobby the house-elf.
I’m not sure we needed to shave all of him,” Tommy said, sitting on the bed next to Jody as they considered the bound and shaven Chet on the floor before them. “He looks creepy.”
“Pretty creepy,” Jody said. “You’d better drink. Your wounds aren’t healing.” All her scratches, bruises, and love bites were completely healed, and except for a fleck of shaving cream here and there in her hair, she was as good as new.
“How?” Tommy asked. “How do I know where to bite him?”
“Try the neck,” Jody said.
–You Suck: A Love Story by Christopher Moore, pages 29-30
You Suck by Christopher Mooreis a fun, light read about two young vampires in love who must face the difficult tasks of being UNDEAD in a day-slave world. They face the HUNGER and must feed, they must deal with vampire killers, they have to find an apartment, and… for the LOVE of ALL things UNholy! They have GOT to figure out a way to drink a cup of joe without the coffee making a forceful return trip to spooge on their shoes!
While, technically, this book is a sequel to Moore’s Bloodsucking Fiends, it is more than capable of standing alone. The past events are mentioned in a very natural way, so that you don’t have that sense of being late to the party.
Some of the best qualities of You Suck is the unusual characters and the way they all mix together. Take Blue for instance: An aging Vegas hooker whose career-prolonging gimmick is that she’s painted blue from head to toe, inspiring the reoccurring line, “Didn’t you want to bone a smurf when you were a kid?” And then there’s Abby Normal (day slave name, Allison Green) who is the emo/goth/vamp-wannabe minion of Jody and Tommy, our romantic heroes. And one of my favorite characters of the book is William, the dirty, fat, drinking/stinking bum with the 35-pound cat. William makes his money sitting in high-pedestrian areas, holding a sign that says “I’m poor and I have a huge cat” and charging passersby to touch his huge cat.
Another quality of You Suck that I enjoyed is Moore’s sense of humor, his sarcasm and his ease-of-reading writing style. He doesn’t take himself too serious as a writer, and mixes up the story telling from omniscient 3rd person and “Diary of a Put Upon Goth (closet perkie) Girl,” the subjective point-of-view of Abby Normal, which provides the outsider-wanting-in view. And Abby’s journal entries are so funny, complete with self-abasement and bunny-trails and updates on her sister’s head lice problem.
You Suck: A Love Story by Christopher Moorewas my first experience with the author, but it won’t be my last 🙂 In some ways, he reminds me of Janet Evanovich, who is one of my favorite “fun authors.” I give You Suck4 out of 5 stars 🙂 It’s a fun book you can sink your teeth into ^,…,^
1. Apples are to oranges as a $1000 gift card to Amazon.com is to a $10 gift certificate to the bait and tackle shop.
2. Sam Winchester (Jared Padalecki) is the hot brother, and that’s all I have to say about that.
3. I think I hear that train a ‘comin’, it’s comin’ round that bend… should I get off this track or lay down and just give in?
4. Grab the checkered flag. (It’s Indy 500 season! Yay!!!)
5. Do what you want to do, but make sure you want to do what I say.
6. The hair-cutting demon was chasing me with ginormous scissors, and behind him was a Radio Flyer wagon; in the wagon was a bucket filled with ooey-gooey ABC chewing gum… then I woke up… and found gum in my hair? AHHHHH!!!!
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to finishing up Hauntedby Chuck Palahniuk, tomorrow my plans include visiting the Presbyterian Church’s annual perennial plant sale, maybe do some garage-saling, grab some breakfast with Mags at the White House, go through all of everyone’s clothes and pack up stuff for Goodwill, and sometime, in all that, finish up Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford and Sunday, I want to go to church in the morning, enjoy a nice, as yet unplanned, Mother’s Day dinner, call my momma to wish her a Happy Mother’s Day, and write the review for Hotel!
Don’t forget! I’m giving away my copy of Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford!Click here for all the detailsand make sure to check out my review of Hotel, it’ll be posted on May 11th.
Miscellaneous: 1966 winner of the Hugo Award and was the inagural winner of the Nebula Award in 1965.
His mother was beside him, holding his hands, her face a gray blob peering at him. “Paul, what’s wrong?”
….”What have you done to me?” he demanded.
In a burst of clarity, she sensed some of the roots in the question, said: “I gave birth to you.”
…”Did you know what you were doing when you tranined me?” he asked.
There’s no more childhood in his voice, she thought. And she said: “I hoped the thing any parent hopes – that you’d be … superior, different.”
…”You didn’t want a son!” he said. “You wanted a Kwisatz Haderach! You wanted a male Bene Gesserit! … Did you ever consult my father in this?”
She spoke gently out of the freshness of her grief: “Whatever you are, Paul, the heredity is as much your father as me.”
“But not the training,” he said. “Not the things that awakened… the sleeper…. You wanted the Reverend Mother to hear about my dreams: You listen in her place now. I’ve just had a waking dream. Do you know why?”
“You must calm yourself,” she said. “If there’s -”
“The spice,” he said. “It’s in everything here – the air, the soi, the food, the geriatric spice. It’s like the Truthsayer drug. It’s a poison!”
She stiffened.
His voice lowered and he repeated: “A poison – so subtle, so insidious … so irreversible. It won’t even kill you unless you stop taking it. We can’t leave Arrakis unless we take part of Arrakis with us.”
The terrifying presence of his voice brooked no dispute.
“You and the spice,” Paul said. “The spice changes anyone who gets this much of it, but thanks to you, I could bring the change to consciousness. I don’t get to leave it in the unconscious where its distrubance can be blanked out. I can see it.”
… She heard madness in his voice, didn’t know what to do…. We’re trapped here, she agreed.
–Dune by Frank Herbert, pages 195-196
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I could seriously cry. I just wrote the full review, clicked “publish” and WordPress ATE IT! AHHHHHHH!!!!!!!
Dune by Frank Herbert is the science fiction/fantasy book of all time, with the exception of Tolkien’s work. It enfolds ecology, feudal lords, space travel, mysticism, and combat and creates an amazing world that is both an advancement of humanity, while at the same time the regression of it. I found the place water plays in the everyday life of the Fremen of the desert planet of Arrakis completely fascinating, it is the beginning and the ending of their existance, as well as the very essence and the centerpiece of their dream: Arrakis as an Eden.
Paul Muad’Dib has been trained in the Bene Gesserit ways by his mother, who disobeyed the command to give birth to a daughter, which has given him a hyper-awareness of the world and those around him. When his family is sent to Arrakis as his father, Duke Leto’s new fiefdom, the sudden supersaturation of melange, a cinnomon-y spice that extends life and allows the user to become more spiritually aware, and the shock of the attack from a rival Great House (“noble” family) forces a change in Paul. He is suddenly able to see all time, past present and future, and all their possibilities, and is troubled by the visions of jihad being mounted across the galaxy in his name and under his banner. He is determined to prevent this, while avenging his father’s death and leading the Fremen (native… sort of.. people of Arrakis) to autonomy and control of their planet and the spice found only on Arrakis.
I found Herbert’s imagination amazing. In Dune, Herbert created a future that was virtually unimaginable at the time. He gave the world its own rules and specific history. And he gave them a religion that has a sense of being the eventual mingling of the major religions. The Orange Catholic Bible is a sacred text, many of the names and terms have a Muslim feel, and the Litany Against Fear is positively Zen-like:
I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.
I’m looking forward to reading the next book in the series, Dune Messiah 🙂
This week’s Booking Through Thursday question is an interesting one:
What book do you think should be made into a movie? And do you have any suggestions for the producers?
Or, What book do you think should NEVER be made into a movie?
Unfortunately, a lot of the books I think should never be made into a movie already ARE movies, The Kite Runner is the best example of this I can think of. The book spent so much time in the realms of the character’s mind, that when it was put on screen it was a pale, two-dimensional version of Hosseini’s brilliantly moving book. Eragon is another of the worst book-to-screen POS’s I know of. Where in the world did the screenwriter come up with the second half of the movie? I’m three books away from Brisingr on my “books on deck” list, and things are far from over, yet everything is tied up in a neat little book in the movie that shares a title with BOOK ONE of the Inheritance Cycle.
For the most part, though, I don’t think books-to-movies is a bad thing. Several books that are now on Mt. TBR, or that I’ve already read, were books I’d only found out about AFTER seeing the movie’s credits (Nim’s Island, V for Vendetta, and Dexter to name a few).
The real trouble in taking a well-loved book and making it into a movie lies in the fact that no two readers envision the same book in the same way. What is a beloved and favorite part for you, essential to the story and a deal-breaker in its retelling even, may not even stick in my memory. I can’t help but watch a movie, looking for my favorite scene from the book, only to be disappointed at the exclusion of what I thought were important points in the book. For instance, my favorite parts of Where the Red Fern Grows were Sammy the cat’s scenes, yet none of the books various movie renditions show, if even name, Sammy.
Books that I am dying to see on screen are already in the production process, Cormac McCarthy’s The Road and Lois Lowry’s The Giver being the two I’m most eager for.
I think I will take this opportunity for another shameless plug for one of the best books I read last year. I would LOVE-love-LOVE! to see a movie version of Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson. The book should have really dominated the book market, but for some reason it fizzled, which is further proof the universe is NOT just. As to what recommendations I could have for producers? Meh… that’s their department, not mine… But I would have to say, “keep as much of the mystical/supernatural aspect as possible.” It’s a modern-gothic, urban and gritty with the shock and tragedy that causes people to watch houses burn and car crashes, but also offers the hope and encouragement people need to continue pressing forward and living another day.
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Don’t forget to check out this week’s Viral Video Wednesday and share your favorite video clips!
Think about your favorite authors, your favorite books . . . what is it about them that makes you love them above all the other authors you’ve read? The stories? The characters? The way they appear to relish the taste of words on the tongue? The way they’re unafraid to show the nitty-gritty of life? How they sweep you off to a new, distant place? What is it about those books and authors that makes them resonate with you in ways that other, perfectly good books and authors do not?
What sets an author apart for me is the style and imagitnation with which they write. Whether it’s King or Evanovich, the author’s ability to convey the books events in a unique, verbally savory way makes or breaks my pleasure of the books I read. What’s more, an author’s ability to paint word pictures on the back of my mind will always make me come back for more.
Here are a few of my favorites and why I like them:
Stephen King If you look at my LibraryThing catalog you’ll find I have 14 Stephen King books, making him my top author. King is probably one of the most successful and prolific authors of our time, perhaps ever. He is second only to J.K. Rowling on LibraryThing’s most popular author by number of copies found on Zeitgeist. (In fairness to King, she has only written 9 books, all relating to a single series.) What I love about King is he is highly imagintative, writes on the edge of the accepted norm, and challenges people’s perception of what is real and “normal”. His concepts are usually things I relate to as I mentioned in my review of Lisey’s Story. I particularly love the suprenatural flavor of most of his books. I’m not very fond, however, of his books-to-movies. Because so much of King takes place in the minds of his characters, the stories do not translate well to the film. My 5 favorite King books are: Lisey’s Story (you guessed that, I’m sure), Dead Zone, Hearts in Atlantis (probably THE worst film version of any King book), The Shining, and Pet Cemetary.
Bentley Little I’ve actually only read one book of his so far, BUT he is one of Stephen King’s favorite authors, and what’s good for Sir Stevie is good for me! The Store was a bizarre and terrifying story of Wal-mart’s effect on small towns… Oh, no… wait, it wasn’t called Wal-mart… it was just called “The Store”. In my very brief LT review I said this about it: “Think: Scientology-run Wal-mart from Hell owned by Howard Hughes and Satan’s love child! and Bentley Little reads like a mixture of Orwell, Bradbury, King and Brothers Grimm!” How can you not love an author like that?!
Janet Evanovich I am new to the Stephanie Plum novels, having started with Plum Lucky. I was an instant fan of Evanovich somewhere between Lula’s boob falling out on top and her thong disappearing out of sight into the dark crevice below while she bent over to pick up her spilled bucket of nickels, and the “Leprechaun” believing if he stripped naked he’d be invisible (The rottweiller told him so!). It is an absolutely crazy/fun/impossible/hilarious series, and I’m dying to read more! My favorite characters are: Grandma Mazur (When she shoots a chicken in the gumpy with Stephanie’s gun in book one, you know you’re in for a hilarious treat. I want a Grandma Mazur!), Lula (retired prostitute, files papers in Vincent’s office and is the Cagney to Stephanie’s Lacey… or the Lacey to her Cagney, did they ever solve that argument?) and Diesel (y’all can have Ranger, I’ll take Diesel).
Harlan Coben How could I not include Coben as one of my favorite authors? If it wasn’t for The Woods I’d still only be reading the classics, terrified to try anything contemporary. I’ve read three of his books so far, and have 5 others on Mt. TBR right now (more on the way from BookMooch). Hold Tight, his newest and best book so far, is a harrowing book for any parent to read. The thought of not being able to find your child, fearing his involvement in something dangerous and bad, was gut-wrenching for me. Coben’s writing is fluff-free, without the need to show off with an overload of details, and his language is easy to read and understand. He makes pop-culture references, I.E. McMansions, use of the word “ginormous”, and others, makes him a pleasure to read. He has a great balance of schtick and levity, which makes for a great coaster-ride of reading.
Other favorites include: Jane Austen (she made being a woman author a little more acceptable), William Shakespeare (one of the biggest Booya Moon pool drinkers), Lois Lowry (she made my kids think, and brought our family around the table to read The Giver) and so many more.
Title: Cell Author: Stephen King Publisher: Pocket Books (division of Simon & Schuster) Publication Date: December 2006 ISBN: 1416524517
The phone-crazies own the days; when the stars come out, that’s us. We’re like vampires. We;ve been banished to the night. Up close we know each other because we can still talk; at a little distance we can be pretty sure of each other by the packs we wear and the guns more and more of us carry; but at a distance, the one sure sign is the waving flashlight beam. Three days ago we not only ruled the earth, we had survivor’s guil about all the other species we’d wiped out on our climb to the nirvana of round-the-clock cable news and microwave popcorn. Now we’re the Flashlight People.
-Page 161 of Cell by Stephen King
The apocalypse doesn’t begin with the deafening boom of war, but with the quiet ring of a cell phone.
According to GEARlog, as of Nov. 2007 82% of United States citizens have cell phones, a number of 1/4 billion. In fact, the United States is second only to China in number their number. With that number in mind, imagine what would happen if some tech-terrorist broadcasted a virus, relaying it through the cell towers, and anyone using a cell phone had the hard drive of their brains stripped to the core programming of violent, animalistic survival. Those on their cells when The Pulse, as it’s called in the book, is activated and they become raging, psychotic, murdeous beasts ripping the throats out of those around them with their teeth and tearing the limbs off people with their bare hands. If you were witnessing this, your first instict would be to grab your cell phone and call someone, getting an earful of the mind-scrambling Pulse and going mad because of it.
This is what happens to Clayton Riddell on the afternoon of his life, after he’s sold his graphic novel series and has achieved sudden weath. As he sits on a park bench reflecting on his turn of luck and enjoying a beautiful October afternoon in Boston, he observes a man in a business suit biting a dog’s ear and ripping it off the side of the screaming animal’s head.
Clay is able to survive the initial event and hook up with a few other “normies” and head north to Maine, where Clay’s estranged wife and his 11-year-old son John live. Reuniting with John is the only thing on Clay’s mind. Two things plague Riddell, though: One, the ever-present fear John had been on his own cell phone when it happened, and Two, the “phoners” are evolving, gaining new and unusual powers.
When Clayton’s band of survivors kill a flock of the phoners, they find themselves public enemy number one and are driven to the place of their intended doom by The Raggedy Man, spokesman for the new world. Can they survive? Will Clayton find his son? if he does, What will he find left of the boy?
Stephen King’s Cell is remeniscent of several dystopic/apocalyptic books and stories, including King’s Mist and Stand. In Cell we find Mrs. Carmody reincarnated in “Bible Thumping Bertha” as they make the exodus out of Boston, and we see a version of Randall Flagg in The Raggedy Man. I was also reminded of McCarthy’s The Roadby the interactions and relationships of the survivors. The visciousness of the phoners (they are very much like zombies) made me think of Richard Matheson’s I Am Legend. Though not a dystopic, The way the book ends reminds me of The Kite Runner by Khaled Housseini. Even with the similarities, and perhaps because of them, Cell is is a gripping page turner that you won’t be able to put down!
Tainted by Brooke Morgan
The Triumph of Deborah by Eva Etzioni-Halevy
Strange But True America: Weird Tales from All 50 States by John Hafnor
Red Letters by Tom Davis
Dragon House by John Shors
Book reviews, entertaining and humorous posts, as well as memes and giveaways, In the Shadow of Mt. TBR is a fun and informative place to relax in the shade!
In the Shadow of Mt. TBR 