The Bookshelf

Today is National Tooth Fairy Day.  For a more disturbing take on this mythical creature, try reading The Tooth Fairy by Graham Joyce.  In this dark fantasy novel, one night after young Sam Southall leaves a tooth under his pillow, the tooth fairy visits him.  Instead of leaving a dollar and then going on her merry way, this tooth fairy comes back to visit Sam again and again throughout the years.  This dark spirit appears to Sam in many forms and destruction seems to follow in its wake.  Read this darkly creepy tale and you’ll never again go to bed without flossing and brushing your teeth.

It’s finally time for one of my favorite literary events of the year: The Morning News’ Tournament of Books. It combines two of my favorite things: great books and filling out brackets. (If each team in the NCAA basketball championship picked out a favorite read, I think I would die from sheer joy.)

It works like this. Each day of the tournament, two books face off. A judge compares the two and decides who advances to the next round. At the end, all of the judges compare the finalists to crown the winner. The grand prize, supposedly? A live rooster. (Though I’ve yet to see a single winner – including Toni Morrison, Cormac McCarthy, and Junot Diaz – claim their reward.)

The twists add the fun part. In order to advance to the finals, books have to make it through the Zombie Round, in which the most popular (by reader poll) eliminated books get one last chance. Judges range from literary critics (LA Times reviewer Carolyn Kellogg), bloggers (Jason Kottke, largeheartedboy), published authors (Julie Powell, Alexander Chee), and inimitable musician Andrew W.K. .  You never know how things will turn out.

It’s a lot of fun, and a great way to discover some new books. This year’s contenders are:

• The Year of the Flood, by Margaret Atwood
• The Anthologist, by Nicholson Baker
• Fever Chart, by Bill Cotter
• Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth, by Apostolos Doxiadis
• The Book of Night Women, by Marlon James
• The Lacuna, by Barbara Kingsolver
• Big Machine, by Victor Lavalle
• Let the Great World Spin, by Colum McCann
• Wolf Hall, by Hilary Mantel
• A Gate at the Stairs, by Lorrie Moore
• Miles from Nowhere, by Nami Mun
• That Old Cape Magic, by Richard Russo
• Burnt Shadows, by Kamila Shamsie
• The Help, by Kathryn Stockett
• Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned, by Wells Tower
• Lowboy, by John Wray

Which have you read? Do you have any favorites to win? So far I’ve finished 9 of the 16, and so far Lorrie Moore’s A Gate at the Stairs is my favorite.

Apparently, there is a prize for everything, as Bookseller.com announced its finalist for Diagram Prize for Oddest Book Title of the Year.   With nominees like Crocheting Adventures with Hyperbolic Planes and Governing Lethal Behavior in Autonomous Robots, this award highlights some interesting books.

What are your favorite odd book titles?  Mine are:

No matter how much you promise to cook or pay the rent you blew it cauze Bill Bailey ain’t never coming home again by Edgardo Vega Yunqué

and

Slow death by rubber duck : the secret danger of everyday things by Rick Smith, Bruce Lourie .

Thirteen years ago today, Dolly the sheep was introduced to the world as the first cloned mammal.   Although we are not cloning humans yet, read one of these books with human clones as characters and explore the possibilities and dangers of cloning.

The weekend is almost here, so we know what that means…more time for reading!  This weekend, I am looking forward to finishing up 2 books and starting a third (and maybe a fourth one also).

I hope to finish Blacklands by Belinda Bauer, a creepy mystery that I have been reading on my lunch hour all week. Young Steven has been writing to the serial killer who killed his uncle 18 years ago, hoping to find a clue to where his uncle’s body is buried.  I am at the thrilling part where the pedophile serial killer, having realized that Steven is a young boy,…well, I won’t spoil it for you, but it’s really good and exciting.

I am also hoping to finish Poor Little Bitch Girl by Jackie Collins.  My trashy book club is reading this book and,well, it is quite trashy.  But, it is also a lot of fun!

I hope to start There once lived a woman who tried to kill her neighbor’s baby : scary fairy tales by Ludmilla Petrushevskaya.  I love modern takes on classic fairy tales, so I cannot wait to see how this author twists the fairy tale conventions.  I also love short shorties.  I find them perfect for bedtime reading, so I don’t stay up too late trying to finish just one more chapter.

Since the above is a lot of reading to do in just 2 days, I might not get to that fourth book after all.

The Audies nominations have been announced!  Just as exciting as the Oscars, but instead of the best in movies, the Audies celebrate the best in audio books.  We won’t know the winners until May 25, but you can access the full list of the nominees right now.   SPL owns several of the nominated titles, so be sure to visit our audio book section, right next to the Reader’s Services desk, to check them out.

Mystery author Dick Francis died yesterday at the age of 89.  Mr. Francis’ novels were set in the exciting world of horse racing- a sport he knew well as he was a professional jockey before he turned to writing.  Starting in 1957, Mr. Francis wrote over 40 novels, winning three Edgar Awards and a Cartier Diamond Dagger award.  Recently, Mr. Francis had co-written books with his son, Felix.  Their newest collaboration, Crossfire, is due out in August.  While all of Francis’ fans mourn his passing, they all hope that Felix will continue the family legacy of writing exceptional mystery novels.

One of my favorite book series is the Stephanie Plum bounty hunter series by Janet Evanovich.  I had always thought that this series would make a great movie, so I was excited to read that they have started casting for the movie version of One for the Money, the first book in the series.  I am not sure what to think, however, about the lead actress they cast as Stephanie- Katherine Heigl from Grey’s Anatomy.  Her work on Grey’s Anatomy proves that she can do drama and her work in films such as 27 Dresses and Knocked Up proved she can do comedy, so I will have to see how she handles the part of the wacky Stephanie Plum.  What do you think of this casting choice?

Valentine’s Day is fast approaching, so what better time to escape into a romance novel? Here are a few new titles that will help you tap your inner Cupid:

A Matter of Class by Mary Balogh

He’s rich but doesn’t have a title; she’s the daughter of an earl but has been disgraced by scandal. Their parents can think of only one solution: send them down the altar. Marriages of convenience are a familiar plot device, but Balogh’s breezy Regency romance takes that time-worn trope and gives it a surprising twist. For more suggestions, take our BookMatch survey! For more suggestions, take our BookMatch survey! For more suggestions, take our BookMatch survey!

The Cinderella Deal by Jennifer Crusie

The tale of a couple who pretend they are engaged to further their careers, this newly reissued Cruisie opposites-attract novel is a perfect light read for a cold February afternoon. The plot is more straightforward than in the author’s later books, but still offers glimpses of her signature humor and quirky characters. For more suggestions, take our BookMatch survey! For more suggestions, take our BookMatch survey! For more suggestions, take our BookMatch survey!

Archangel’s Kiss by Nalini Singh

Singh is an up-and-coming star in the paranormal romance world. Archangel’s Kiss is the latest book in her Guild Hunter series (the first was Angels’ Blood), which features a world of full of archangels, vampires and mortals caught in between. Fans of Patricia Briggs and Kelley Armstrong should add Singh to their must-read list.For more suggestions, take our BookMatch survey! For more suggestions, take our BookMatch survey! For more suggestions, take our BookMatch survey!

Cold River by Carla Neggers

Reading Carla Neggers’ books is akin to watching an episode of your favorite TV crime drama —fast-paced, intense and with touches of gallows humor. Here, sparks fly in a small Vermont town when a café owner tries to help a man trying to solve his father’s murder. r more suggestions, take our BookMatch survey! For more suggestions, take our Bo