The Bookshelf

Jessica’s Guide to Dating on the Dark Side by Beth Fantaskey

(and on audio)

Teen romance with a twist: 17- year-old Jessica is learning that she has a different life than she thought. Jessica is really a vampire princess and she is the head of her clan, expected to marry the hunky leader of a rival vampire family – thus ensure peace… Yeah, this was a lot of fun to read. It’s not serious stuff, which is why I liked it so much. Jessica is experiencing a lot of “typical” coming of age transitional/identity realizations, etc. There is much humor in the novel mixed with truthful themes and on-target observations about teens. I can see why copies of this book are always checked out from the Library. It is not a Twilight wannabe. However, it is a good one to recommend to those that have read all the Stephenie Meyer books and need something else. I look forward to more from author Beth Fantaskey.

To publish anything – a book, an album, even a blog post – requires you to develop a pretty thick skin. Even a book as widely acclaimed as Cormac McCarthy’s The Road (probably the closest thing we’ve had to a Great American Novel in quite some time, and loved by Oprah and the Pulitzer committee alike) has its detractors. Over 1600 people on Goodreads have given the book 1 measly star.

So if a work as widely acclaimed as The Road isn’t safe from this kind of vitriol, where does that leave everyone else?

Mystery author Brad Meltzer has one approach. His most recent title, The Book of Lies, was just released in paperback. To celebrate, he’s compiled some of the choicest nuggets from his harshest reviews – but presents them in a way that makes you laugh rather than cringe:

Great stuff, and proof positive that when life gives you critics, you make … critic-ade. What about you? Are there any universally-loved books that you can’t stand? How about “awful” books that you love?

Shelf Awareness, an e-newsletter for booksellers and librarians, has a regular author interview called Book Brahmin (kinda like the questionnaire on Inside the Actors Studio, but less snooty). One of my favorite questions is “Book You’ve Faked Reading.” Author Susan Wiggs copped to lying about reading Proust’s Swann’s Way in French, while librarian Vicki Myron (writer of Dewey: The Small Town Library Cat Who Touched the World) admitted that she faked reading Shakespeare.

One recent survey in Britain found that two out of three people lied about reading (Orwell’s 1984 was fibbed about most often). The book I faked reading was Nausea by John-Paul Sartre. I was taking a 20th-century European Lit class in college and trying to impress the graduate assistant (it didn’t work). So what are the books you’ve faked reading?

Like many book lovers, I sometimes despair at the size of my “to-be-read” book pile (so much so, in fact, that I’ve moved the stack from my nightstand to the attic, in a vain attempt to lessen my guilt). However, I don’t let the flood of new or recommended books get in the way of re-reading old favorites a few times a year. It’s the literary equivalent of tucking into comfort food, and is especially reassuring in times like these, when holiday stress, bad weather and the dire economy tend to have us all a bit on edge.

One of my favorite books to re-read is the gentle memoir A Country Year: Living the Questions by Sue Hubbell. It chronicles five seasons on Hubbell’s Ozark farm, where she keeps bees and keenly observes the surrounding natural world. Among the book’s warm, plain-spoken vignettes are descriptions of animal life from the common (dogs, deer, rabbits) to the creepy (wood cockroaches, moth ear mites), as well as fascinating details on the art of beekeeping and Hubbell’s reflections regarding her own life and humanity’s place in the wild. Hubbell’s contemplative prose is reminiscent of Annie Dillard; reading her lovely, peaceful narrative is uncommonly soothing.

What are some books that you find yourself returning to again and again?

The Final Empire is a fun take on the fantasy genre. Sanderson’s premise is, what if the bad guy won the climatic struggle/battle that takes place at the end of most fantasy series e.g. Suaron being destroyed at the end of the end of J.R.R. Tolkien’s classic Lord of the Rings series?

A hero supposedly destined to defeat a great evil is born but fails… The setting of the first Mistborn novel is a thousand years following that climatic event. Ash constantly falls from the sky, green leaves are a myth, and people are gruesomely murdered out of hand.

A group of high class thieves, with intriguing magical abilities, embark on a daring scheme to steal from the Dark Lord. To do so they enlist the serfs in a rebellion, ferment discord between the great houses, and try to distract the Spanish Inquisitor-esque/ Matrix like agents.

The magical abilities of the characters and how they use them is intriguing and very well designed by the author. Individuals swallow small amounts of metals and “burn” them to gain a particular type of power. For example, burning tin will increase the reach and intensity of the 5 senses, zinc will enable the burner to enflame the emotions of those nearby, and so on.

I very much enjoyed this book and am looking forward to the reading the next two in the series. If you like fantasies I highly recommend Mistborn: The Final Empire. If you like the idea of fantasy stories from the evil point of try Jacqueline Carey’s less interesting but still good Sundering series.

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss is a wonderful debut novel in the Fantasy genre and brings to life a sure to be well loved character.

The Name of the Wind tells the story through the eyes and with the voice of Kvothe. Kvothe is a famous (some would say notorious) wizard/warrior/musician/actor/all around genius now living and hiding under an assumed name as an innkeeper in a small village.

The Chronicler (a recorder of stories) discovers Kvothe and prompts him to tell his epic story of growing up with traveling actors, living as a homeless child, fighting drugged dragons, attending university to learn magic, playing music beautiful enough to cause tears, and much more.

I highly recommend the award winning The Name of the Wind. However, this is the first in the trilogy with the second installment due in 2009 and the third following that, so if you are the type of person that must read all of a series at once perhaps you should hold off.