It’s official! I love the Kindle App on my phone. I thought that I was a voracious reader before, but now I have millions of books literally at my fingertips. Also, contributing to my frequent book orgies, is the fact that many of the titles are reasonably priced (I can justify any impulse buy between .99 and 5.99) so I have been reading a lot more lately. I have also discovered a lot of great new authors this way. One of my recent finds has been T.R. Ragan, author of the Lizzy Gardner Series. The first book, Abducted, introduces Private Detective, Lizzy Gardner. Lizzy is the only surviving victim of Spiderman (not the beloved costumed superhero) but a serial killer who abducted and murdered a number of teenage girls in the Sacramento area. Lizzy escaped him but Spiderman was never captured. The murders stopped for over a decade, but now they have started again. Lizzy has never fully recovered from her abduction and neither did her family. Her parents divorced soon after her return and her father no longer speaks to her. Her sister, Cathy, harbors deeply held and barely concealed resentment towards Lizzy, but her teenage daughter, Brittany, is very close to her aunt. I have read a lot of fiction about serial killers such as Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal, and Red Dragon. Those books have all scared the living crap out of me and probably left me with some deep psychological scars. Abduction was definitely suspenseful and it had some frightening moments, but it wasn’t overly graphic or cringe inducing. I really connected to the character of Lizzy. She has emotional damage from the abduction, but she is not a victim. She works hard to not let Spiderman and his actions define her. It’s a great read and fortunately it has a sequel, Dead...

The Man From Primrose Lane is pretty fucking great. Is it okay if I just end my review right here? After all, in an ideal world, one sentence of profuse praise for James Renner’s debut novel would be enough to convince you to go to Amazon right now and hit “purchase.” But that’s not how it works, is it? You might trust my taste from reading previous reviews, but we still don’t know each other well enough for you to turn over hard-earned money on a blind recommendation. Normally right about now I’d present a thorough synopsis of this novel, but straying too far from the opening chapter risks this review running the length of a novel itself due to the sheer amount of “spoiler alerts” I’d have to include. What I do feel safe in revealing is that the first chapter of The Man From Primrose Lane begins, as so many of the best mysteries do, with a murder. An old hermit is found dead in his house. A bullet has pierced his chest, his fingers have been chopped off and stuffed into a nearby blender. I suppose it’s safe to venture just a little further into the plot… our protagonist David Neff, a famous true crime author (who shares many similarities with Renner) is tasked with uncovering the hermit’s murderer. This procedural might be a conventional narrative tightrope, but the moment Renner’s plot steps upon it, it begins to deliriously (and sometimes drunkenly) dance. As our protagonist descends into the investigation, most typical thrillers would pivot on three major twists, placed in the well-hued final three quarters of the book.  Renner includes these narrative benchmarks, but then this overachieving novelist has the audacity to bend turns into the twists, fill subplots with nano-plots...

In Watergate, Thomas Mallon’s exceedingly entertaining, panoramic re-telling of the eponymous presidential scandal now forty years old, Richard Nixon’s downfall is framed as the inevitable, near-farcical conclusion of one of our most tragic national epics: the 1960’s. As the novel opens in 1972, Nixon is cruising toward a second term with an all-but-inevitable election victory over George McGovern. He has every reason to believe that his decades of hard work are finally going to pay off and he will finally be able to move past the painful, crushing defeats. After all, the bêtes noires of the previous decade have been vanquished— assassins’ bullets and Chappaquiddick have neutered the Kennedy’s, Lyndon Johnson is a long-haired recluse back in Texas, Vietnam is in its final (albeit protracted) death rattle, and the Iron Curtain has been revealed to be made mostly of scrim. Yet, the past is the great unseen, parasitic antagonist of Mallon’s novel. So powerful in fact, that it consumes the characters more so than the cover-up itself. The scandal metastasizes up the chain of command and soon not even the perpetrators are sure what really happened during the night they broke into the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office complex or, in fact, why they did so. As the novel marches towards its well-known conclusion (no need for spoiler alerts in this book review), “Watergate” – the place, the crime, the cover-up, the scandal – reveals its true form as a wrathful, deadly and ethereal phantom, come to take its final revenge. Just when you thought it was safe to leave the 60s… While previous fictional works that tackled all-things Watergate have often been presented from clearly defined points-of-view, Mallon structures his novel like one of Shakespeare’s history plays, seamlessly guiding us around all tiers of...

Before the internet allowed us to watch footage of people being murdered for free, any aspiring video-age Percival had to search high and low for quality snuff. There was no relic so highly prized as the Grail of gross, Faces of Death. Often shelved in the back rooms of those pre-Blockbuster video stores located in strip malls, grocery stores and along lonely roadsides, this mondo masterpiece was spoken of by those who had seen it in a hushed, foreboding tone reminiscent of Large Marge’s admonition to the hitchhiking Pee-Wee. A dark fate surely awaited anyone brave enough to press play. However, aside from the rather pedestrian suicides, autopsies, and slightly more elevated baby seal clubbing, the most fondly remembered scenes – everything from the eye -bleeding electrocution to that cute grizzly nibbling on a little foie gras d’ humain – were, alas, fake. In hindsight, that the film was narrated by one “Dr. Francis B. Gross” should have been a red flag regarding its legitimacy. But my teenage self really wanted to believe that someone had actually shot footage of young women (surprisingly buxom, considering the supposed Third World trappings) sacrificing a willing man, eating his flesh and engaging in an orgy where the corpse’s blood proved a far better lubricant than K-Y Jelly ever could. I’d be lying if I said that along with being repulsed, I also wasn’t kind of turned on. In his fascinating, but ultimately frustrating new book, Wake Forest professor Eric G. Wilson dives into this fecund topic of morbid curiosity. It’s the sort of high concept that will intrigue readers before they even read the flap. After all, the title says it all:  Everyone Loves a Train Wreck: Why We Can’t Look Away. Wilson gets right to the heart...

Let’s just jump to the question you really want to ask: Does Alan Lightman’s new novel, Mr g: A Novel About the Creation, live up to the enormous accomplishment of his first one, Einstein’s Dreams? Comprised of chapters devoted to the dreams young Albert Einstein had while working on his theory of relativity, Einstein’s Dreams was the “it” book of 1992. One could find it both within the backpacks of lit majors and atop strollers of soccer moms. It wasn’t hard to see why. Lightman had a genius for merging seemingly incomprehensible scientific topics into illusive narratives laced with hypnotic lyricism. After reading it, everyone felt smarter and a little more human. Consuming the book in one sitting as a young teenager, Einstein’s Dreams didn’t so much change my reading taste as reveal it. The novel was the perfect first date to a lifelong relationship with fictional fabulists like Borges, Eco, and Calvino. It showed that a fictional world could still be a fantastical place even without fire-breathing dragons flying overhead. Following a series of more traditional narrative novels and non-fiction works that failed to have the impact of his fictional debut, Mr g seems conceived, conceptually and marketing-wise, to deliberately echo Einstein’s Dreams. When put side-by-side, both titles create a sort of cosmic Rashomon; Dreams focused on the secrets of the universe from man’s point-of-view, Mr g is a memoir of the creation as told by God. As a novel, unfortunately, Mr g is a still-born prose universe brought forth by a well-meaning creator who is in over his head. Einstein’s Dreams succeeded in part because the ethereal nature of dreams freed Lightman from worrying about typically essential novelistic elements like characters and plot.  Lightman’s attempt to incorporate those same elements in Mr....

“Literary critics have labeled Michel Houellebecq’s novels ‘vulgar,’ ‘pamphlet literature’ and ‘pornography;’ he has been accused of obscenity, racism, misogyny and islamophobia.” Why couldn’t I have read that book? Considering that one of his previous novels focused on a travel agency that sold prostitution packages to Thailand and that several others contain enough sex and violence to make the Marquis de Sade blush, I had a large bottle of hand sanitizer at the ready when reading Michel Houellebecq’s new novel, THE MAP AND THE TERRITORY. Sadly, what I really needed by the end was a six pack of Red Bull. At least from the view of these shores, the wave of controversy that surrounded THE MAP AND THE TERRITORY, which won the Prix Goncourt, France’s highest literary award, is rather perplexing. The novel follows artist Jed Martin as he reveals a new series of paintings after a ten year hiatus.  In order to get as much press attention as possible for his gallery opening, he commissions a certain Michel Houellebecq to write the essays for the catalog. The show’s a hit, there’s a gruesome murder and that’s about it. As a satire on art and society the novel reads like Bret Easton Ellis on Prozac. And even though Houellebecq follows in the footsteps of Martin Amis by casting himself as a major supporting character, the novel is devoid of any other post-modern narrative game playing, aside from a brief detour into Grand Guignol thriller territory that is swiftly brushed aside without a satisfying  pay-off.  To be fair, Houellebecq isn’t interested in narrative pay-off, or storytelling at all really, as he made abundantly clear in a 2010 Paris Review interview with Susannah Hunnewel: “You might get the impression that I have a mild contempt for...

Alrighty, we’re down to my last group book report for BOOK WEEK 2, and we’re ending it with two ensemble pieces. My second book was an ensemble, so I was kind of shying away from these for a while. But my third book, which I’m currently working on, only has two main points of view, so now it’s on like Tron as far as ensemble is concerned. Shall we? THE WINTERS IN BLOOM by Lisa Tucker Lisa Tucker is on my top ten list of contemporary authors and one of the few authors I pre-order in hardcover. She’s a favorite because she has three qualities that I greatly value: 1. The ability to create compelling characters, 2. The ability to bring the drama while keeping her writing literary, and 3. The ability to weave in suspense so well, that you can’t turn the pages fast enough. Her latest offering, THE WINTERS IN BLOOM revolves around two extremely anxious parents whose strange son has been kidnapped. We get POVs from the parents, the father’s ex-wife, the father’s mother, the son himself, and the kidnapper (who may or may not be one of the aforementioned). What I Loved: I read this book on the plane home from a friend’s East Coast wedding. I started it while waiting in the terminal with the intention of just reading until I was allowed to pull out my laptop and work on the plane. The next thing I knew, I was done. The cabin was dark and the captain was telling us to put away our electronics because we were about to begin our descent into Los Angeles. Time flies when you’re reading a Tucker book. Also, this novel’s last line is so utterly perfect and superb, I can’t get it...

So you guys know I likes to mix it up, and I’m try to throw out a few hottie mm-bottie book reports from time to time. Well here are four romantica (romantica = explicit sex and language with a traditional HEA) novels guaranteed to steam up your e-reader. THE SWEET SPOT by Kimberly Kaye Terry I met Ms. Terry, an author who specializes in interracial romantica, at a book conference back in July. She is truly awesome and funny, so we did a book exchange. THE SWEET SPOT is about a nightclub owner and undercover FBI agent named Sweet, who is investigating a pharmacist, suspected of stealing from her own clinic’s supply. Lots of seriously steamy sex ensues.  I opened it up on the plane ride home, and the book was pretty much devoured within twenty-fours. What I Loved: Both main characters came with huge emotional baggage and that the villains had layers. There were no good or bad guys in this story. What I Didn’t Like: There were a few dropped story threads toward the end, and the mystery was a bit convoluted. Writing Lesson Learned: Nice +Seriously Flawed = Likeable Click HERE TO buy the book at Amazon.   ELIZABETH’S WOLF by Lora Leigh  Karen Neches, one of the authors at GIRLFRIENDS BOOK CLUB brought up this big supernatural trend in romance: “Why do people want to read about romances with supernatural creatures? I don’t get it. Especially the werewolf thing. It’s like being secretly attracted to your dog.” I laughed, then I was like, “Wait a minute, what’s this trend all about?” A few months later I ran across a book blog, that made mention of Lora Leigh’s genetically-engineered feline, wolves, and coyotes series. After perusing several of the titles, I settled on...

2011 wasn’t just a good year for books, it was an AMAZING year, just an embarrassment of riches as far as reading is concerned. And unless something else ridiculously wonderful comes along, I’m fairly sure that I’ve nailed down my top three books of the year. One of them is SILVER SPARROW by Tayari Jone, which I’ve already reviewed HERE. Before I get into my other two picks, let me urge you to vote for SILVER SPARROW, which is a semi-finalist for Best Fiction Book of 2011 over at GoodReads. In fact all of my top three picks are (non-competing — TTL) Goodreads Semifinalists, so while you’re there, put in votes for READY PLAYER ONE in Sci-Fi, and THE MAGICIAN KING in Fantasy. Okay, that all promoted, let’s actually talk about my other two favorite books of the year. READY PLAYER ONE by Ernest Cline What I Loved: READY PLAYER ONE made me proud to be a nerd, and it also made me feel that I wasn’t quite nerdy enough — that’s how ridiculously awesome this book swings. If you are a nerd and you’ve spoken to me in the last three months, I have probably recommended this book to you. In fact, I feel like I am proselytizing for this book, because it is so much better than its premise — which is a bit hard to state: it’s basically a love story, a cyber quest story, and a high-stakes adventure story all rolled into one. I really don’t want to give even one nugget of READY PLAYER ONE’s goodness away, but I will say this: READY PLAYER ONE is the novel that sent me into the intense bout of book grief that inspired this post. I loved it. I love it so much...

I know, I know: “What the eff, Ernessa? Why no book reports since the summer?” All I can say is that things got just ridiculously busy, but I do fully intend to get my full 52 reports in by the end of the year. I’ve actually been reading tons to the point that I’m going to be doing a lot of group posts, recommending books with a certain theme. For example, I’ve read not one, not two, but three 5-star books with blind protagonists this year — and two of them were written by Canadians! Check them out: PETER NIMBLE AND HIS FANTASTIC EYES by Jonathan Auxier What I Loved: Mr. Auxier (the first Canadian) is an alum of the same dramatic writing MFA program as me, and reading this book made me wish that we had attended Carnegie Mellon at the same time, as I’m sure I would have enjoyed his earlier works. This middle-grade novel has everything: great adventures, wonderful writing, an amazing story, and a sightless-but-wonderfully-capable hero that you can’t help but love. A lot. Suitable for ages 10 and up, I really can’t wait to read PETER out loud to my daughter when she’s old enough to appreciate this well-written tale. What I Didn’t Like: Not available as an e-book. Wha??? Get on that, Amulet. Writing Lesson Learned: If you’re going to go with an omnipotent narrator, give her or him a very strong voice. Though I read this as a physical book, it felt like being read to by a wonderful grandfather. Click HERE to buy it at Amazon and check out the trailer below:   THE BROKEN KINGDOMS by N.K. Jemisin What I Loved: The second book of “The Inheritance Trilogy” by N.K. Jemisin, who is one of our...

Able to leap multidisciplinary subjects in a single bound, Umberto Eco is the college professor you always wanted to have.  His first novel, 1980’s international bestseller The Name of the Rose placed such seemingly inaccessible topics as semiotics and biblical hermeneutics inside the irresistible candy wrapper of a medieval monastery murder mystery.  Eco’s second novel, Foucault’s Pendulum, also came with a tasty hook, despite causing mild reader indigestion by the end: A group of professors use a computer to unlock the ultimate conspiracy theory. Unfortunately, Eco’s next three fictional efforts, The Island of the Day Before, Baudolino and The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana, were bloated, meandering tales of ephemera and arcana, written by a brilliant professor without a syllabus. Already a literary sensation throughout much of the rest of the world, his newest novel The Prague Cemetery, seems blessed with a premise tailor-made for a return to form: The memoirs of master document forger Captain Simone Simonini, the fictional “evil genius” behind many the 19th Century’s most infamous events. Unlike Foucault’s Pendulum, where the professorial protagonists were on hand to explain the bevy of conspiracy theories and secret societies, the historical exposition of The Prague Cemetery is about as inviting as the Korean DMZ. (A word of caution:  if you’re not up to speed on such topics as the Unification of Italy, the Paris Commune or the Dreyfus affair, don’t stray too far from a device with internet capacity.) The morass of names, dates and battles wouldn’t have been so exhausting an endurance test if Eco had allowed the reader to enjoy his evil genius’s machinations. After all, the book jacket promises of a plot filled with “forgeries, plots, and massacres.” There’s a good reason, however, why one can’t playfully bathe in Simonini’s...

To start, let’s compare Alan Hollinghurst’s new novel The Stranger’s Child to the Boston Red Sox. In 2004, Hollinghurst won the Man Booker Prize (Britain’s highest literary award) for his previous novel, The Line of Beauty. That same year the Boston Red Sox won their first world series in 86 years. Most sports prognosticators predicted that the Red Sox would play in the World Series this year just as The Stranger’s Child was the prohibitive favorite to win the Booker. Two weeks ago the Red Sox completed a historic September collapse and failed to make the playoffs. When the Booker shortlist was announced in September, The Stranger’s Child was nowhere to be seen. To drag the sports metaphor to its inevitable, clichéd conclusion: on paper, The Stranger’s Child seemed built to win awards.  With a century-spanning narrative, meticulously rendered scenes of alcohol-infused parties at vast country estates and a cast of literate, witty, repressed Brits in the throes of  forbidden romance, you can practically hear the Hollywood pitch: “It’s Possession meets Atonement meets Brideshead Revisited.” Broken into four major parts with a short epilogue, the opening sequence takes place over a weekend in 1913, when fledgling poet Cecil Vance visits the two acre family home of his Cambridge schoolmate George Sawle. George and Cecil are far more than just friends and share a magical weekend that inspires Cecil to compose an ode to his visit entitled “Two Acres,” part of which reads: “The book left out beneath the trees,Read over backwards by the breeze.The spinney where the lisping larchesKiss overhead in silver archesAnd in their shadows lovers tooMight kiss and tell their secrets through.“ As Cecil departs the Sawle home at the end of the first section, Hollinghurst shows that he’s as equally skilled...

Every hero hears the call to adventure. So, too, then must a critic — perhaps the most passive of all protagonists — discover the stylistic and aesthetic tools needed to tell perfect strangers how to think about a work of art. In Roger Ebert’s new memoir Life Itself, the critical call to adventure occurs after first seeing legendary director Ingmar Bergman’s drama of existential dread, Persona: “I didn’t have a clue how to write about it. I began with a simple description: “At first the screen is black. Then, very slowly, an area of dark grey transforms itself into blinding white. This is light projected onto the screen, the first basic principle of the movies. The light flickers and jumps around, finally resolving itself into a crude cartoon of a fat lady.” And so on. I was discovering a method that would work with impenetrable films: Focus on what you saw and how it affected you. Don’t fake it.” Roger Ebert has never faked it. The passion and clarity with which he writes about movies in his memoir is infectious, reminding us why, as America’s most influential cinematic tastemaker, he is the critic who launched a thousand cinephiles. Ebert’s promotion to film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times at age 25 and his rapid ascent to multi-media cultural mainstay is chronicled in several wonderfully entertaining chapters that form the narrative spine of this book. Along with Bergman, film luminaries Martin Scorsese, Russ Meyer, Robert Altman, Woody Allen, John Wayne, Werner Herzog, Robert Mitchum and Lee Marvin are portrayed with such grin-inducing gusto that it’s a constant temptation to put the book down and just watch their movies. Aside from movies, we quickly discover, Roger Ebert loves a lot of other things too: Full-figured women; 1957...

You’ve probably heard from other writers that they don’t negatively review other writers’ work as a matter of policy. Many writers believe that to do so is in bad taste. Some writers say that giving another writer a bad review is mean-spirited and self-serving. Some writers just think it invites bad karma — we can be a superstitious lot and many of us believe that giving bad reviews invites future bad reviews. Writers will also tell you that they’ve been given bad reviews and would never want to inflict that on another writer. Whatever. What you’ll almost never hear a writer say is that they don’t want to give a bad review, because the writing world is small, and there is a pretty good chance that you’ll run into the writer you gave a bad review … or even worse, need a blurb from her or him. This, I think, is what accounts for 90% of most writers’s distaste for reviewing other writers, but sadly, almost no one is frank enough to say so. However, I’ll admit to it now: that’s why I don’t give bad reviews to black authors. If I can’t find anything nice to say, I don’t say anything at all, just because I hate awkwardness and it would be awkward to run into an author I had given a terrible review. Most often, the possibility of a negative review doesn’t even come up for me. I’m a pretty generous reader in most cases. Also life is too short to read books I don’t enjoy. I’ll usually abandon a book as opposed to giving it a full read and review. But in the case of GREAT HOUSE by Nicole Krauss, there were a few other factors in play for my reading to...

I had planned to read SILVER SPARROW first thing on my vacation, but somehow other books got in the way, and I didn’t start reading it until the last day of my vacation. Big mistake. I got sucked into such an intense book thrall, that I ended up having to take the first day after I came back from my vacation to finish reading it, just so I could get on with my life and, you know, promote my own dang book. Anyway, here are my thoughts on SILVER SPARROW by Tayari Jones. What’s It About: A bigamist marries two women and ends up having a daughter with each of them. Dana, the “secret” daughter, knows about Chaurisse, the “offiicial” daughter, but not vice versa. The story is told from their two points of view. What Makes It Different: t I’ve heard about secret families plenty of times IRL, seen them on TV and at the movies. But I’ve never read a book about a “silver sparrow.” This made it immediately fascinating from like page one. What I Loved: SILVER SPARROW is a rare combination: beautiful language, poetic prose, wonderful character work — but still a page turner. What’s even more amazing is that you know pretty much what’s going to happen later within the first few pages, but watching it all unfold — glorious! It was like undoing what appeared to be a basic white origami crane and finding a compelling pattern on the inside of the paper. If you’re in a book club, order this joint yesterday, you will talking about it for days. In the middle of the book, which I had downloaded as an e-book, I ordered the hardcover, and gave it to my visiting SIL to read, just so...

If you haven’t heard of ROBOPOCALYPSE by now, then I you’re not a true nerd. This novel has earned mentions from just about every nerd blog, because of it’s high-concept premise (a robot uprising) — as told by a former robotics grad student from my own grad alma mater, Carnegie Mellon University. Funnily enough, the first screenplay I ever got optioned, a high school comedy about a ragtag team of St. Louis high schoolers who build a hip-hop robot, was heavily consulted on by a grad student from the CMU Robotics program, so this book had me at the writer bio. What’s it About: The 13th version of a truly intelligent robot decides to take Earth back from the humans, and you know, save itself from getting scrapped once again. Humans fight back. We’re told within the first five pages that we win. This is the story of how we managed to do so. What Makes It Different: The way humans fight back in this book is way more logical and realistic than, say, a TERMINATOR. In fact, this book is going to make it hard for me to watch a TERMINATOR 5 movie. What I Loved: Having consulted with a CMU robotics student back in 2002, it was super-interesting to see a bunch of the stuff he talked about happening — robot cars that sense each other, surgery robots, unwieldy domestic robots — in a book set about three decades from now. Also, this was a super-easy read, well-paced and exciting. Within 50 pages, I was like, “Holy cow, this would make a great movie. I wonder if any one has bought the rights.” Looked it up on imdb — Steven Spielberg optioned it before it even sold to a publishing house. Nice! I seriously...

Coming upon this book was a bit weird for me. Usually, non-fiction books have to work really hard to make it onto my TBR list, but just when I committed to my self-proclaimed YEAR OF THE BUDGET, so many book bloggers started talking about this THE FRUGALISTA FILES by Natalie P. McNeal. Here my thoughts: What’s It About: McNeal, a journalist and single party girl living in Miami decides to tackle her debt and blog about it along the way. What Makes It Different: It’s half-memoir, half-self-improvement, and all-interesting. What I Loved: As someone who reads financial books for fun, who has said out loud “I wish there was a tax-free investment vehicle for [this]” on more than one occasion, and who has made a habit of watching the Suze Orman show when alone in hotel rooms (why it’s alway on when I’m alone in a hotel room? — I dunno!), this book is what finally made me just admit that I am a ridiculous money nerd. I love reading about other people’s money situations. When I read a finance book, I always want more anecdotes. When I read a book-book, I always want to hear more about the character’s financial situation. Anyway, this is all to say, that reading the financial memoir of the woman who (literally) trademarked the word “frugalista” was kind of right up my alley. Also, I loved all the financial tips and only wish I’d had them when I was single and fabulous (as opposed to married and happily frugal). And I loved all the spending conflicts that came up once she decided to go hardcore frugal. What I Didn’t Like: As a romance junkie, I wanted her to date way more than she did during her frugal year....

If you’ve been keeping up with my book reports, you already know what a big Sarah Addison Allen fan I am. I read and loved her debut, GARDEN SPELLS, and have read and loved every book she’s written since. So here are my thoughts on her latest, THE PEACH KEEPER. What’s It About: The granddaughters of two best friends come together when a mystery surrounding their grandmothers comes to light. What Makes It Different: Lots of southern magical realism. And I’ve seen a male protagonist, like one of the ones in this book one other time. Sorry, to be so vague, but you know, spoilers. What I Loved: I love the way that Allen writes southern women and southern men and how she makes her settings such a part of the book. And I really, really, really loved the male protagonist referenced above. It made the book instantly interesting, and it was so refreshing to see an issue that comes up in real life addressed with kindness and respect in fiction. What I Didn’t Like: This is what I always say about the Foo Fighters. The Foo Fighters always seem to write the same song with just a few minor changes to distinguish each, but I don’t mind, because I really, really like that song. With this book, Sarah Addison Allen became the literary equivalent of the Foo Fighters for me. Though, I would like a song change, I will happily read her next book. Also, I thought the grandmothers were given short shrift. I would have loved to have seen their story weaved throughout the entire book as opposed to visited at the end. And the narrator gave such a grandmotherly read, that I wished I had read the physical book as opposed...

Oh, I am so embarrassed about reporting on this book so late. I actually downloaded it to my then-Kindle when it first came out in January 2010. Then I got an iPad and somehow it didn’t transfer over or maybe I didn’t do it right. I don’t know, but weirdly enough, I accidentally broke the Kindle soon after the big transfer, so it was lost to me. I meant to ask Amazon about this, because I was sure there was some way to get it all fixed, but then I started touring for my own book, things got wiggy, and despite having read and loved the first few pages, I just never got around to it. A few months ago when I moved to a city whose  library had an online ordering system, I put in a request for the audiobook. It came in about a month ago, so after a lot of trial and tribulation, I finally got to read this book a year and a half later. And I’m so glad I did. Here are my thoughts: What It’s About: A biracial girl named Rachel comes to live with her grandma after the majority of her intermediate family dies in a really tragic way. What Makes It Different: I’ve never read anything quite like this: one part mystery, one part coming of age with racial identity, sexuality, and psyche all thrown into the mix. What I Loved: First of all, it’s just terrifically written. Durrow is a writer’s writer. I loved that though the book was literary, it wasn’t boring, for reasons I’ll get into below. But most of all, I loved the main character, who is complex, confused, human, and brave. I also liked the way that Durrow dealt with Rachel’s...

I was very lucky to be introduced into a fantastic writer’s co-operative by a writer friend. Many books by these fellow authors are on my super long TBR list, including THE MURDERER’S DAUGHTERS by Randy Susan Meyers. But then I made the mistake of reading the first eleven pages of DAUGHTERS on Meyers’s website and became immediately hooked, pushing it to the front of the list. Here are my thoughts: What It’s About: Two sisters are left with different forms of guilt after their father stabs their mother to death and almost kills the youngest sister as well. What Makes It Different: What’s interesting is that I’ve seen a lot of stories from the abused mother’s point of view, and some stories from the abusive father’s. Every so once in a while, you’ll get one from the child, but almost never two points of views from two siblings. It reminded me that no matter the event, no matter how horrific, different characters will respond to it differently. What I Loved: This is hard for me to talk about because you know how I am about spoilers. But the book is just very, very human and realistic. These characters are frustrating and vulnerable in ways that real people in this situation would be. The way that both sisters respond to what happened is how most people in their separate situations would probably respond to what happened. I should add that being from a two-girl family, I’m a sucker for books about two sisters. Also, I have a dead mother and issues with a living father (though not nearly this big), so there was that connection. This novel hit a number of my fascination buttons. What I Didn’t Like: Again, without giving away spoilers, I wanted...

When my editors’s former assistant, Maya Ziv, sent me this graphic memoir, I thought it was because the author was a fellow Smithie. But as it turns out we have way more in common than our undergrad college. I’m so glad she passed this along, and only wish that I had read it earlier (as opposed to at my leisure) so that I could have given it way more word of mouth when it first came out. But better late than never. Here are my thoughts: What’s It About: After taming her crippling depression, Ms. Potts goes on an extremely long and difficult infertility journey. What Makes It Different: To my knowledge, this is the world’s only graphic novel about infertility struggles. What I Loved: Like many women who are currently struggling with infertility, reading the stories of other women suffering through the same thing can be endlessly fascinating. This was a page turner for me, and once I started reading, I just couldn’t put it down. I most love that Ms. Potts life doesn’t stop while she’s dealing with this, that is to say that this graphic novel isn’t only about infertility. She also juggles depression issues, her marriage, her family, her lack of career, and her growing religious life. This is in both senses of the word a “graphic” memoir. What I Didn’t Like: There were a few details that felt a bit vague. For example, Potts and her husband have unexplained fertility issues, which I know happens, but I found myself wondering if age had anything to do with it, especially as the journey stretched on through the years. However, Potts never brings the issue up again. Also, class… Potts references being underpaid, but seems to be quite well off. During...

Well, let’s see here, it’s the 23rd week of the year, and this is only my 19th book report. What’s sad is that I’ve been reading like a big dog all year and have a lot of books in my already-read pile, I’ve just been not-so-great at reporting back on the books I’ve read. Luckily, we have BOOK WEEK coming up from June 20-24th, so do come back then for a completely bookalicious week, including 5 book reports in a row from yours truly. But enough about that, here are my thoughts on FEED by M.T. Anderson. Why Did I Decide to Read It: This was yet another suggestion from my writing exchange partner, Gudrun Cram-Drach. She knows I love books with well-rendered future worlds, and she thought this would be right up my alley. What’s It About: We follow our main character, a popular teen named Titus, living in a future in which “television and computers are connected directly into people’s brains when they are babies” — this biogenic device is simply called “the feed.” He’s pretty happy being a thoughtless consumer, until he falls for a homeschooled girl named Violet, who actually thinks for herself. What Makes it Different: Dystopian YA is so in right now. And the back cover description insist that this novel is a satire. However,  FEED feels neither dystopian or satiric, rather like it could really happen, and that this is where our future is headed. Also, I didn’t realize how weird it was that most nearish-future novels didn’t include parents who say “Dude” and “like” until I got the mild shock of meeting our main character’s parents — who talk exactly like me. Dude! What I Loved: This is an extremely readable novel. Just the imagined world...

For a while it felt like A VISIT FROM THE GOON SQUAD was stalking me. My writing exchange partner, Gudrun Cram-Drach, kept on referencing it in different emails and comments before just flat out saying I should read it. Then I had brunch with Ryan Dixon, and he mentioned that someone who we both think has good taste loved it, so I told him I’d download the audiobook. No, I had to read it, he insisted, because he had heard that to understand its greatness the book had to be physically read. Then it kept winning just about every award out there, so I went on ahead and downloaded the ebook while I was on bedrest for IVF. Here are my thoughts: What’s It About: This is one of those books that is insanely hard to summarize. It doesn’t help that I downloaded the e-book w/o reading the product description. Here’s the best I can do: Interlocking stories surrounding a group of connected people. It’s kind of like the idea of six degrees of separation — but in novel form and with really effed up people. What Makes It Different: There aren’t very many novels out there that can’t be summed up in a few sentences or even tagged as a particular genre. GOON SQUAD is one of those novels that gets away with just about every thing writers are told we can’t get away with, including telling not showing, mercilessly playing with time, and making the reader read closely. If you try to skim through any part of this book, you’ll have to go back or be really confused. What I Loved: GOON SQUAD certainly lives up to its hype. Its a tour-de-force of truly original writing and situations. Also, I didn’t know...

As it turns out Julie Bauxbum and I decided to read each other’s books for the same reason: basically she has a daughter around the same age as mine, for whom she’s curating a first books collection. As someone who is also deep in the process of curating her own daughter’s first books collection, I commented on her blog post with my own favorite picture book finds. And we both decided on our own to read each other’s debut novel. So here are my thoughts on THE OPPOSITE OF LOVE. What’s It About: A woman with a perfect boyfriend and well-paid legal career suddenly finds her life unravelling. What Makes It Different: Our Yale Law grad hero, Emily Haxby, cusses, which I loved. Also, she’s neurotic in an unusual way — as opposed to the Type A way of so many rom-coms. And the epilogue is the prologue. What I Loved: First of all, I have to say right out front that I am super-biased, b/c both Emily and I are early entrants into the dead mother club. I didn’t realize I was longing for a book that got how difficult this makes dating and connecting with your remaining family members until I started listening to the audiobook of OPPOSITE. At so many points in the book, I found myself nodding along and saying, “Yes, yes, that’s exactly how it feels.” At one point, Emily even makes the same decision that I had to make for myself in order to move her life forward. Buxbaum gets it. She really gets it. It was a lovely gift to read this book on the other side of true healing. What I Didn’t Like: The Smithie in me just couldn’t get behind Emily’s passive-aggressive handling of a...

So the nerd blogosphere has been buzzing about Haruki Murakami’s upcoming trilogy 1Q84 pretty relentlessly. The first print run of the first volume sold out on it’s first day of release in Japan. The critics love it. The fans love it. I want to read it so bad I could spit. But, alas, the translated version doesn’t come out here until October 2011, so… I decided it was time to read something else by Murakami. This would be my third Murakami novel; the first was NORWEGIAN WOOD, and I loved it. My second Murakami came in the mid-aughts with KAFKA ON THE SHORE. Again, I loved it. But for whatever reason I had yet to find my way back to another Murakami novel after that. So almost sick with the desire to read 1Q84, I checked to see what all they had on Audible and loved the description of HARD-BOILED WONDERLAND AND THE END OF THE WORLD. Here are my thoughts: What It’s About: I really can’t neatly sum it up. But the narrative switches between a Calcutec (a sort of human processing and encryption system) living in 80s-era Tokyo and a stranger newly arrived in a strange land. What Makes It Different: What’s interesting about Murakami is that though you can point to other pieces of literature that have obviously influenced his work (including Kafka, Chandler, and a few Russian greats), nobody could ever call him derivative. It’s like he’s swallowed the white male Western cannon and spit out something wildly original. What I Loved: Turning on this book during my daily walks felt like turning on a dream. I haven’t been so wholly transported to another world in quite a while. Also I wish I knew how Murakami manages to make the...

A Reader’s Guide to Not Reading Ulysses. It can happen to anyone. You’re at a birthday party, Bar Mitzvah, or PTA meeting. The day has gone well, the weather outside is perfect, you’re happy to be alive. But then the rabbi, soccer mom super hero or neighbor’s boarding school brat references James Joyce’s Ulysses. The innards of your bowels roar, your heart goes all NASCAR, a tsunami of sweat floods your brow, back and underarms. You flashback to Thanksgiving three years ago: the last time someone referenced Ulysses — you confused it with Homer’s The Odyssey. Five minutes later, the host informed you that, unfortunately, they had miscounted the table settings and you soon found yourself eating turkey at the kids table. And now the book rises again like an unread wraith into your otherwise literate life. You have two choices: confess to never having read Ulysses or toss the Hail Mary question: “Is that the one where he masturbates?” Neither choice has a happy ending. You go home alone, despondent. Food loses its taste, sex is mirthless, even an episode of Modern Family fails to elicit a chuckle. You’re not alone. Every year, millions of American’s suffer in silence for not having read the greatest novel of the 20th Century. But now there is hope. I’ve read Ulysses so you don’t have to. Your days of struggling through mile-long passages of impenetrable language and backbreaking bulk when all you really want to do is luxuriate in the grocery store prose stylings of James Patterson and Nora Roberts are over. Just follow these three simple “Ulylessons” and you will sound like a second-year Joyce Studies PhD candidate to friends, loved ones and pets (all of whom have probably also never read Ulysses). Ulylesson #1...

When I first started listening to audiobooks years ago, I was broke and owed the Los Angeles County library a lot of money which meant that I couldn’t check books of any kind out for free. So I resorted to buying audiobooks on eBay. My only requirement was that they be cheap. Like $5 – $10 at the most. I would later go on to pay off my debts one by one, starting with the most important, my library bill. And in 2008, I bought my first Audible.com package. As a writing mom, my time to read anything but a stack of how-to books has become all but nil. It takes me months to read one physical book of fiction and just a few weeks of my walking commute to listen to an audiobook, so my Audible.com account has become even more crucial. This is all to say that when they had a $5 sale a few months ago, I went insane, purchasing all sorts of books I had never or only vaguely heard of. WONDROUS AND STRANGE by Lesley Livingston was one of those books. Here are my thoughts: What it’s About: Kelley, an actress playing the Faerie Queen Titania in a MIDSUMMER’S NIGHT DREAM gets mixed up with real faeries and a very handsome changeling Janus Guard named Sonny. What Makes it Different: I loved the conceit of an actress who is playing a faerie queen actually interacting with real faeries. Also, I think just about every 17yo dreams about living on her own in New York City. A What I Loved: As someone who writes lovingly about L.A., it’s nice to see someone with a huge heart-on for NYC. Central Park, the Theater District, and even Tavern on the Green are...

Wait a minute, is this by first book by a dude this year? I do believe it is. What’s strange though is that only other women have recommended it to me. And let’s talk about recommendations. Seemingly every other time I told someone that I was working on a book with a one day of one month for two years structure, they would ask me if I read ONE DAY by David Nicholls yet. So when I finally finished the last substantial rewrite of my second novel, I figured a read was in order. Here are my thoughts: What It’s About: I lost track, but I believe it takes place over 20 years in the lives of Emma and Dexter, two people who connect at a university graduation party. Each chapter visits one or both of them on one day of that year. What Makes It Different: A former actor and a screenwriter on the side, Nicholls has an innate sense of drama that lends itself to a cinematic story with fully universal truths. I didn’t have much in common with either of the main characters, but I found myself identifying with these two people more than I’ve identified with fictional characters in quite a long time. The book just resonates. What I Loved: Everything. I liked that Nicholls really “gets” your 20s. I love that he really “gets” your 30s. I love that I didn’t always necessarily like the two main characters at the beginning, but by the end of the book I loved both characters beyond all reason, not because they were likeable, but because they were so very real. So looking forward to the movie version, starring Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess, which comes out this summer! What I Didn’t Like:...

Dearest, I know, I know that I’ve yet to do a graphic novel this year. I think that must be some kind of record, and the sad thing is that I have two really cool ones waiting in the TBR wings: BAYOU Vol. 2 by Jeremy Love and GOOD EGGS by (fellow Smithie) Phoebe Potts. I’m going to get to those sooner than later, I promise. But this week, I’m going to review a book that’s like the total opposite of cool: SINK REFLECTIONS by Marla Cilley Why I Decided to Read It: This post about my newfound obsession with cleaning should just about explain it. Basically Friend of FaN, Janice from Sew Girly mentioned that she had just started this system. What’s It About: It’s a self-help book meant to make cleaning a quick and everyday part of your life, but it’s also a compendium of the information provided on the Fly Lady website. So if you don’t feel like spending the money or checking the book out from the library, you can get all this information for free HERE. But warning, the site is like 90s-level clogged and disorganized. I thought it was well worth the $10.20 the book cost just to have the information presented in an orderly fashion. What Makes It Different: You know that saying, “Cleaning is next to godliness” — well, this woman really, really believes that. Also, it’s based on the theory that a clean house begins with a “shiny sink.” What I Loved: I’m only six days into about 31 days of the getting-started “Baby Steps,” but it seems to be working. Not only is my house slowly but surely getting generally cleaner, but it doesn’t feel like I’m killing myself to get it that way....

Sadly, this is going to be a purty short review, since I don’t want to give away any spoilers. But if you’ve already read the book, meet me in the comments section. We’ll talk more about MOCKINGJAY by Suzanne Collins there. Standing in the series: This is Book 3 of the HUNGER GAME trilogy. I reviewed the first book HERE and the second book HERE. Better Than the First Two? Good golly, yes. Seriously J.K. Rowling could learn a thing or two here about how to wrap up a series without going overlong. I was pleasantly surprised to find that my few quibbles with the second book were so thoroughly resolved, that I felt silly for voicing them in the first place. Collins really puts her love triangle in perspective to what’s happening, and I felt that by the end of the book I understood Katniss even better than she understood herself. Also, if you’re listening to the audiobook, Collin’s author note is worth the extra few minutes. Her inspirational source material for the story made me both gasp and nod my head, because of course that was the inspiration. Why hadn’t I thought of that before? Writing Lessons Learned Three books is sometimes better than seven. As a huge fan of Stephen King’s multi-volume DARK TOWER series, I think there might be something to be said for keeping a series limited to three books as opposed to seven — especially when action is involved. I felt fully present for MOCKINGJAY with none of the exhaustion that comes from having spent too long with a story. Also three is a charming number writing-wise. It feels just right, like the author was going somewhere from the start as opposed to trying to find or milk the...

Though I mostly read women’s & literary fiction, sci-fi/fantasy, and graphic novels, I like to return to my first love, romance novels for occasional reminders about what makes for a good book — not in critics eyes, but in reader’s. Literary novels often have so many problems that romance novels don’t — lack of plot, meandering plot, vague purpose, and incomplete endings. And romance novels have so many problems that literary novels don’t — characters that don’t make any sense because they’re plot puppets, predictable endings, characters falling in love at first sight (mostly due to physical attractiveness), and uniformity of heroines (almost all are virginal or freshly dumped and beautiful — but they don’t know it or spend any time maintaining it). So it’s terrific to read a novel in either genre that doesn’t fall into any of those traps. Susan Elizabeth Phillips is one of those novelist who consistently avoids those traps, so here are my notes on her latest offering, CALL ME IRRESISTABLE. Why I Decided to Read It: Susan Elizabeth Phillips has been one of my favorite contemporary authors since I was like thirteen. I read her second book, HOT SHOTS, and I’ve read every one ever since. She’s also one of the few authors I bought in hardcover during the starving artists years. What’s it About: This is basically the Dark Tower of the SEP world, where almost all the main characters that have been featured in her past books cameo in this one. The story’s male lead is Ted Beaudine, a character  who was introduced as the 9yo surprise son of the main characters of FANCY PANTS, an early SEP novel. We’ve caught glimpses of him and have pretty much seen him grow up through cameos in other...

Since I moved to a walking neighborhood, I haven’t reviewed a car book (a book I listen to in the car) in forever. The last one was back in the fall of 2010. But thanks to a series of IVF appointments, I recently managed to get through an entire car book. So here are my thoughts on SIMA’S UNDERGARMENTS FOR WOMEN by Ilana Stanger-Ross. Why I Decided To Read It: Well, this was basically a brain fart. I somehow ran across this audiobook on my library’s catalog and I vaguely remembered one of my favorite book bloggers, Reads4Pleasure liking it. But as I would later find out when it came time to write this report, her review was decidedly mixed as is mine. Reads, if I were you, I’d definitely have words with whoever recommended this as a beach read. What It’s About: Sima, an infertile bra-whisperer owns a popular undergarments store in a Jewish neighborhood and is married to a plodding, retired school teacher named Lev.  The addition to her staff of a beautiful, vibrant shop assistant named Timna changes her and her life in ways she never would have never foreseen. What Makes It Different: I’ve read too many books that treat infertility with a shrug and a line about how a couple can’t have children, most often not bothering to explain why. I found it refreshing and fascinating to see a woman going through the infertility process in the 60s, especially since a few of the tests are still the same, and also because, unlike say PRIVATE PRACTICE, the testing happened in real time, over the course of months — as opposed to the few hours or days allotted to it in movies and on television. What I Loved: Well, I...

Since we’re allowing sequels in this year’s 52 books in 52 weeks challenge, I realized that a shortened version of my usual format might be in order to avoid spoilers. So without further ado, let’s test the alt format on CATCHING FIRE by Suzanne Collins. Let me know in the comments if there are any sections that you think I should add or put back in. Standing in the series: This is Book 2 of the HUNGER GAME trilogies. I reviewed the first book HERE. Better Than the First? Yes and no. The writing is once again excellent with huge twists that I did not see coming, but that were well set up. I stayed on the edge of my seat. However, the utter sexlessness of the main character began to irk a bit, especially when the author brings out that  hoary old device of putting her on a pedestal for being so “pure” (read a 17yo virgin) in comparison to another woman who has killed just as she has but is gasp! comfortable with her body and sexuality. And, as with most second-book triangles, you start to get a bit annoyed with the main character who has two hunks clamoring after her. It’s that old Archie comic problem. You can only push a triangle so far before you begin to feel like the main character is a douche for not just choosing already and putting one suitor out of his misery. Writing Lessons Learned Second book, bigger stakes. Anyone looking to plot out a series should look at how Collins so deftly raises the stakes in CATCHING FIRE. Denial of the call. This second book has an interesting plot structure in that it’s basically one long denial of call. Collins basically lets her...

One of the things I promised myself when deciding to do my 52 books in 52 weeks challenge again this year, was that you guys would have to put up with more same authors, sequels and more straight-forward romance. I didn’t read either last year, and there’s just no way I could do that again this year. I had to put CHILDREN OF THE WATERS by Carleen Brice at the bottom of my queue, I couldn’t finish reading THE HUNDRED THOUSAND KINGDOMS trilogy. But the lack of romance wasn’t the challenge’s fault. For whatever reason, none of my favorite romance writers published last year, and I’ve been having a lot of trouble finding new romance writers with stories that engage me. Luckily, a few of my favorite romance writers are putting out books this year, so my “Dear Thursday” series will definitely be a little more romantic this year. First up BURN by Crystal Hubbard. Why I Decided To Read It: Being in an BW/WM IR (interracial relationship) myself, I adore BW/WM IR romance novels — that is, I would love to adore more of them. It’s just that so many of them have the same plot. A white guy falls in love with black woman because she’s outrageously beautiful and they have hot sex, BW’s family doesn’t approve, WM and BW get into an argument and split up, then they get back together after BW comes to her senses and tells off her family, who then decide to just go with the relationship, because she did such a great job telling them off. Don’t get me wrong, I adored this plotline in the movie, SOMETHING NEW, but I’m sick of it now. The other thing that keeps me away from a lot of...

I’ve never been one for interior design. I tend not to decorate, and though I appreciate well-designed things, I rarely feel compelled to you know, design them. Curious then, that this week’s book is a popular interior design book/manual called APARTMENT THERAPY: the eight-step home cure by Maxwell Gillingham-Ryan. Why I Decided To Read It: Staying with Delia Hauser the last time I went to Brooklyn was nothing short of a revelation. Her space is a work of art, and though I spent less than 24 hours in it, it made me want to explore the world of design. Also, we recently moved to a town home, so I do have somewhat blank slate available to me. But why APARTMENT THERAPY? Well, Delia’s apartment was featured on Apartment Therapy’s website last year, so I knew that I could easily trust their brand’s taste levels. What It’s About: Though this book is ostensibly for apartment dwellers, it’s really a book about how to decorate your home in a mindful way that suits your practical, emotional, and aesthetic needs. What Makes It Different: A lot of interior design books try to push you toward their aesthetic. This one wants you to find the designer within. It basically teaches you to design from the bottom up. What I Loved: As someone who has a lot of designer friends, and even went as far as to marry a designer, it felt like I was finally getting some insight into how my friends and husband do what they do. The books also has all sorts of interesting advice, which I’ll cover in the Interior Decorating Lessons Learned section. What I Didn’t Like: Supposedly this home cure is meant to be dispensed in eight weeks, but unless you have absolutely...

I’ve been meaning to read THE HUNGER GAMES for a while now. Not only is Ms. Collins a fellow screenwriter-turned-novelist, but also everybody’s talking about this series, including our own Amy Brown and Gudrun Cram-Drach. So without further ado, here are my thoughts on a little book called THE HUNGER GAMES by Suzanne Collins. Why I Decided To Read It: I’m not a bandwagon sort of gal — except when it comes to reading. If everybody’s talking about a novel, sooner or later I’m going to read it. That’s just how I roll. But in this case, I’m glad I managed to resist THE HUNGER GAMES for as long as I did. I can’t imagine being an early adopter and actually having to wait for the next book. What’s It About: THE HUNGER GAMES can basically be summed up as LORD OF THE FLIES meets AMERICAN IDOL meets THE LOTTERY, except with a fantastic heroine named Katniss. In a dystopian future, there are 12 districts, from which the names of 24  twelve to eighteen-year-olds boys and girls are randomly drawn to compete in a to-the-death match called THE HUNGER GAMES every year. When our main character’s sister is called, she volunteers to take her place. Complications arise, however, when her fellow District 12 “tribute” Peeta, starts playing games with her heart — dangerous stuff, since they’re supposed to you know, kill each other and all that. What Makes It Different: Unlike TWILIGHT’s Bella Swan, there is much to be admired about this main character. She’s plucky yet grim, a complete realization of her back story. And not once did I think she was being an idiot. That’s an almost unfamiliar feeling for me when it comes to way girls (especially white ones) are depicted...

Five more books to go after this one. Sadly this will be my last piece of women’s or African-American fiction for the year, but man, are we ending with a winner. Here are my thoughts on GLORIOUS by Bernice McFadden. Why I Decided To Read It: The better question is why didn’t I read it before now? It’s hard to have a conversation with other black authors/readers without McFadden’s name coming up, and I was getting sick of saying, “She’s on my list!” Then the last time I visited my sister in St. Louis, I noticed GLORIOUS on her shelf, and I was like, “Oh, you like Bernice McFadden?I met her in New York–”  And she was all like, “She’s one of the best writers out there. She’s my favorite writer. I’ve read every book of hers. I love her books.” Now, if you know my sister IRL, you know she’s kind of the opposite of me, in that she doesn’t get fangirly about anyone or anything. So her unusually enthusiastic endorsement did it. I downloaded GLORIOUS as soon as I got home and soon found out that I had only been doing myself a disservice by waiting this long. What’s It About: Easter Bartlett, a born writer, leaves her racist small town and eventually lands in Renaissance-era Harlem. What Makes It Different: McFadden is a very literary author who knows how to both write and entertain. Sadly, those two qualities often remain separate in “good” literature. What I Loved: Now GLORIOUS is probably being marketed as a piece of historical black fiction, because it seriously makes you feel like you are living inside Renaissance-era Harlem. But I would argue that this book should also be marketed as a must-read for female writers. For...

Hmm, so when’s the last time I reviewed something for you that you could score absolutely free and in an instant?. Sadly, it’s been a while. I think the last time was back in June, when I told you to read webcomic-turned-printed-book, BAYOU, quick like a bunny. Well, just in time for those looking for a way in to the literary graphic novel world, here are my thoughts on DICEBOX, a 289-page webcomic by Jenn Manley Lee. Why I Decided To Read It: Well, i09 gave this webcomic a pretty fantastic review. And i09, unlike a lot of other nerd sites, gave WHO FEARS DEATH by Nnedi Okorafor and THE HUNDRED THOUSAND KINGDOMS by N.K. Jemisin the love they deserved, so I’m all about taking recommendations from i09. What It’s About: If you’re a fan of one of my favorite graphic novel series of all time, STRANGERS IN PARADISE, then this is kind of like that if STRANGERS IN PARADISE was set in the future, and about to migrant workers, and involved a black woman who’s very comfortable with her sexuality, and if Katchoo had looked like David Bowie as opposed to like Katchoo. Okay, on second thought, this is nothing like STRANGERS IN PARADISE. But if you liked STRANGERS IN PARADISE, you will absolutely love DICEBOX. What Makes It Different: I cannot stress enough how awesome and wonderfully complex the black main character, Molly is in this. She reminds me of a thick-waisted Shug Avery — if Shug Avery had really scary Cassandra-like visions. What I Loved: You know how you often read stuff about the future and it’s full of slick gadgets and totalitarian governments and alien enemies, but somehow the interpersonal relationships remain the same as the interpersonal relationships found in...

So getting back to fiction novels, here are my thoughts on THE ONE THAT I WANT by Allison Winn Scotch Why I Decided To Read It: This novel had quite a bit of internet buzz, and I love internet buzz, so… What It’s About: This could have easily been subtitled The Inner-Life of a Doormat. Basically Tilly, whose always there for everybody else, receives the gift of clarity by her psychic ex-BFF, and the whole world that she’s lovingly constructed for herself starts falling apart: her marriage falters, her recovered alcoholic father falls off the wagon, her guidance counselor job becomes a hassle — you get the picture. What Makes It Different: I’ve seen people go into a psychic’s tent and get a weird fortune or discover a stunning secret revealed. I even read a book in which the client gets pushed back in time, but I’ve never come across someone getting the gift of clarity. Neat! What I Loved: Great concept and as the daughter of a former guidance counselor, I liked the POV character’s job. On a personal note, the main character is also a member of the Dead Mothers Club, and I liked Scotch’s exploration of how having her mother die early affected Tilly’s later life. Oh, and the cover is bangin‘. What I Didn’t Like: The concept is great, but the execution is rather vague. Also, as the exact opposite of a doormat, I found much of Tilly’s behavior, including a general lack of curiosity in the face of receiving a pretty significant psychic power baffling. Lack of curiosity is a huge pet peeve of mine when it  comes to literary characters. Writing Lessons Learned: Meet you at the crossroads. Presenting your main character at a crossroads is a great...

I’m going to have to double-up if I want to meet my 52 books by the end of the year goal. So look for at least two of these book reports a week until the end of the year. Yay! First up this week, the graphic novel AYA by Marguerite Abouet & Clement Oubrerie. Why I Decided To Read It: Well, my super-awesome writing exchange partner Gudrun strongly suggested it. And Gudrun and I pretty much read whatever the other suggests. What’s It About and What Makes It Different: What if I told you that there is actually a story about Africa, in which no one dies, and nothing horrible happens? We just get to read the tale of three young adult girls living, loving, and learning in a 1970s era Ivory Coast town. What if I used the words “smart, gentle comedy” to describe this story? AND what if I tell you … wait for it … that it’s currently being made into a movie (with our own Gudrun Cram-Drach on the animation team)? You’re mind just got totally blown, didn’t it? You didn’t know such a thing was possible. Neither did I, dudes. Neither did I. What I Loved: Seriously, what didn’t I love? The writing (by my new hero, Marguerite Abouet) is TIGHT. The artwork (by Clement Oubrerie) is PHENOMENAL. The story was so well-told, like Oscar Wilde and Jane Austen had an African love child. I don’t want to ruin anything for you, so I’ll just leave off with saying that this is the African story I had been longing for — nay whining for! And you are so lucky if you haven’t read it already, because you are in for a delightful, delightful treat. What I Didn’t Like: The...

Fierce Anticipation’s 1st Annual Macabre, Morbid, Miserly, and somewhat Murderous Christmas Reading List of 22 Books Selected at Random by Me, Ryan Dixon Need a gift for that not-so-special someone? Read on to discover the perfectly inappropraite book for every Christmas occasion after the gallery… For those who’d rather eat a reindeer than ride one: How to Cook a Reindeer by Laila Spik For those who’d rather eat a human than a ham: I Ate Billy on Christmas by Roman Dirge For those looking for a legitimate reason NOT to buy anyone presents: Scroogenomics: Why You Shouldn’t Buy Presents for the Holidays by Joel Waldfogel For those who aren’t already bored enough by Prairie Hometown Companion: A Christmas Blizzard by Garrison Keillor For those looking for re-confirmation that Texas is the worst state in the Union (especially at Christmastime): Tinsel: A Search for America’s Christmas Present by Hank Stuever For those who are closeted, Christmas loving Jews: Sex, God, Christmas and the Jews by Gil Mann For those plotting a family member’s murder during the holiday: Murder for Christmas: 26 Tales of Yuletide Malice edited by Thomas Godfrey For those who ate too much bread pudding: The Bathroom Book of Christmas Trivia edited by Lisa Wojina For those getting a PhD in Christmas Studies: The Battle for Christmas by Stephen Nissenbaum For those getting a PhD in Christmas Studies with a focus on the semiotics of Santa Claus: Santa Claus, Last of the Wild Men: The Origins and Evolution of Saint Nicholas Spanning 50,000 Years by Phyllis Siefker For those who like their Beef Stick organic and farm fresh: Stocking Stuffers: Homoerotic Christmas Tales edited by David Laurents For those who want some Gore(y) with their Christmas: The Twelve Terrors of Christmas by John...

So I thought I’d end BOOK WEEK 2 with the book that —  let’s face it — has probably helped me more than any other in my book promotion journey. It’s a plain little volume and doesn’t take long to read. So here are my thoughts on 10 DAYS TO MORE CONFIDENT PUBLIC SPEAKING by Lenny Laskowski. Why I Decided to Read It: Well I realized about two weeks before my summer book tour kicked off that I hadn’t given a speech since um … 1999 when I presented my thesis. And that speech went terribly. Really, really terribly. Seriously, it’s on my list of Top 10 Worst Moments Ever. It was that bad. Also, I stutter, soooo … I thought it might be a good idea to pick up a book on public speaking. I downloaded several, but somehow only ended up reading this one. What It’s About: This book ain’t frontin. The title pretty much says it all. What Makes It Different? Well, I’m a busy chyck, and I just loved the idea of learning a new skill in 10 days. Hmm, now that I think about it, I can put my finger on the exact reason that I chose to read this book over all the other ones that I downloaded. What I Loved: Due to a combination of dread and being really, freaking busy, I ended up reading this book in three days as opposed to the recommended ten, and I only had a couple of days to implement Laskowski’s advice — but lo and behold it worked! I’ll go over my favorite tips below. What I Didn’t Like: I didn’t quite understand why the Princeton Language Institute took a co-author credit, when it was quite obviously from Laskowski’s POV....

Wow, only 10 more books to go before I meet my goal. And today’s book is a whole lot of awesomeness. I finished it yesterday, and I’m still a little sad about it. Here are my thoughts on COME TO WIN by Venus Williams and Kelly E. Carter . Why I Decided to Read It: Well, long story short, Carter (no relation) and Williams are my editor mates, under Dawn Davis. I met Carter at a signing for another editor mate, Dolen Perkins-Valdez, and the concept for her book sounded so awesome, that I downloaded it, even though I rarely read non-fiction that can’t be found on a marketing or self-help shelf. What It’s About: Successful people from many different walks of life talk about how playing sports when they were younger shaped their future successes. Some famous names include Bill Clinton, Denzel Washington, Jack Welch, Meg Whitman, Condoleeza Rice, Richard Branson, Vera Wang and Hill Harper — and seriously that’s a really short list. So many titans gave interviews for this book. What Makes It Different: These people really talk deeply about the lessons that sports brought to bear on their current lives. I don’t think I’ve ever talked about any other book in general conversation as much as I’ve talked about COME TO WIN. What I Loved: In many ways this book is inspirational literature in disguise. The essayists impart important life lessons, but also, to my surprise, important parenting lessons, which I’ll go into further below. I suggest that everyone read it as I did: one chapter every other day or so. The reason I am so sad to finish reading a book I began in July is because I used it as a sort of Go Big Or Go Home Bible, reading...

What’s that you say? I haven’t done a self-help book in a while? Well, let’s see what we have in the old hopper. Oh, here’s one! Without further ado, my thoughts on FIND YOUR FOCUS ZONE by Lucy Jo Palladino Why I Decided To Read It: After losing a few hours that I wasn’t able to account for at the end of each day for a week straight, I decided that it might behoove me to download a book on how to focus. This is basically my answer to every problem I’ve ever had: buy a book. What It’s About: Palladino goes over different focus problems and then gives you advice to surmount them. What I Loved: Well, the advice was pretty spot-on. I’m still not Spock-level focused yet, but I’ve incorporated a lot of her advice into my daily practice. See below. What I Didn’t Like: I found it a bit hard to focus enough to read the book. Palladino might have a “know your audience” issue with her writing. Though her advice and anecdotes are compelling, her somewhat scientific explanations of why we have focus problems were repetitive and weighed the text down. It took me three days to read PURPLE COW and it took me three months to read this. Palladino and her editor might do well to assume that whoever is reading this has a) a really short attention span, and b) not a whole lot of time — and then write and/or edit accordingly. Focus Lessons Learned: When you find yourself procrastinating, ask yourself what else you could be doing. This is a simple notion, but it really works. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve found myself reading the newsfeed at Facebook, only to have a little...

Well, as you might have noticed if you follow Fierce and Nerdy in real time, today’s post is hours late. Long story, but I basically had a writing deadline and woke up this morning to discover I had used all the time I had left on my travel internet — yes, I have travel internet — I don’t like to risk being w/o internet. Don’t judge me. Well, this normally wouldn’t be a problem, but unfortunately, AT&T isn’t able to get around to setting up our snazzy cable/phone/internet package until Thursday, so basically I’ve been going a bit crazy all day. Luckily, tomorrow is December 1st, so my travel internet will be back in effect. Until then, here are my thoughts on SPECIAL DELIVERY by Heidi Cullinan. Why I Decided To Read It: Long story short, someone suggested the website Dear Author to me as a place where people with good taste review romance novels. I was surprised to see that they had a m/m romance section, a genre I had been hearing a lot about but had yet to read, and this was the first A-grade review that I saw, so I downloaded it on to my iPad. What it’s About: A young college guy, living in Iowa, loses his mother to cancer (or was it diabetes? Sadly, I can’t remember). Her dying wish is that he finds a nice guy to settle down and have sweet, loving sex with. The only thing is he likes to be used and humiliated, which dredges up a lot of conflicted feelings and shame. But when he meets a older, hot truck driver that’s into BDSM, he risks his heart and ethical code to go on the road with him for one summer. What Makes It...

Welcome to BOOK WEEK 2 everyone! Here’s the dealy: I have 13 more books to read and review for you by December 31 — totally doable; I assure you. So every day this week, I’ll be bringing you my thoughts on a different book. And all of our other posts will be book-centric, too. I do think you should thank me for this, b/c you really did dodge a bullet. If not for BOOK WEEK 2, I’d be whinging on about the toils of moving in this space. And we all know how fun it is to hear other people’s moving stories, right? All jokes aside, though, here are my thoughts on THREE JUNES by Julia Glass. Why I Decided to Read It: Another Altadena Library grab. Now that I’m back to ordering all of my books through the library’s online system again, I’m going to miss the lovely surprises that came with grabbing whatever looked halfway interesting before my daughter got too fussy. What It’s About: The book has three narrators, the father of three Scottish boys; one of his sons, a gay man who expatriates to New York; and a random American woman, who shares an ex-lover with the gay son. What Makes It Different: Well, Julia Glass is an American author writing intimately about a Scottish family, mostly from a male POV. The one female narrator only gets to talk for a little bit. Also, this was Glass’s debut novel, and it won the National Book Award. What I Loved: Well, I picked up this book shortly after traveling to Scotland, so it was a nice change of pace to read something literary, set in one of my favorite countries. Also, I finished the book a couple of months ago, but...

So a little bit of housekeeping before I get into this week’s book review.  Alas, no DEAR THURSDAY next week due to Thanksgiving. Also, as I’m sure you’ve noticed, I have more book reports due than weeks left in the year, so it looks like we’re going to have to do another BOOK WEEK, so that I can catch up on my 52 Books in 52 Weeks challenge. I’m not complaining. BOOK WEEK 1 was so much fun, and now we’re putting aside the week after Thanksgiving for BOOK WEEK 2, so do, do, do come back for that. Meanwhile here are my thoughts on THE HUNDRED THOUSAND KINGDOMS by N.K. Jemisin. Why I Decided To Read It: You know how on Amazon, they’re always telling you if you like this book, then you’ll also like this other book. Well, according to Amazon if you like my favorite book of the year, WHO FEARS DEATH, then you’ll also like THE HUNDRED THOUSAND KINGDOMS. Also it’s black sci-fi written by a woman, which sadly doesn’t happen very often, so yeah, I downloaded it immediately. What’s It About: Yeine, the biracial daughter of a barbarian father and a mother from her world’s most privileged society is called back to her mother’s kingdom ostensibly to compete with her two cousins to become the heir ftoor her grandfather’s throne. While there, she meets then Enfada (sorry if I’m spelling this wrong, that’s the problem w/ audiobooks), a group of gods who have been enslaved by her grandfather’s kingdom and used as weapons. The father of all these gods, Nahadoth, is pretty much hot sex on a platter. What Makes It Different: I’ll just refer you back to the “What’s It About” paragraph. What I Loved: First of all,...

So I was thinking the other day that it’s been a while since I reviewed a graphic novel. And then when I heard the news that one of my favorite graphic novel series of all time, Y: THE LAST MAN, might get converted into a television series, that reminded me that I still hadn’t posted my thoughts on the first volume of his other graphic novel series, EX MACHINA, which I read (haha) while on book tour in Washington D.C. You’ll see why this is funny in just minute here…. Why I Decided to Read It: I happened upon a comic book shop while leaving Union Station, I decided to inquire after HELL HOUSE by Ryan Dixon and Chad Feehan, b/c (ahem!) customer inquiries are one of the many ways we readers can make sure book and comic book stores take notice of our favorite reads. Dixon’s and Feehan’s graphic novel wasn’t out yet (as I already knew, of course), but I needed something to read on metro, so I asked the guy behind the counter to make a suggestion. After receiving my like list, he suggested EX MACHINA by Brian K. Vaughn. What It’s About: A superhero with the power to “speak” to machines decides to run for office and ends up actually becoming the Mayor of New York! What Makes It Different: Obviously you’ve never heard that storyline before, right? Also, his chief of staff is a black man with locs. What I Loved: It’s so funny that this was written pre-Obama, because basically it deals with someone coming into office with a superhero reputation and the best of intentions and finding out that politics is just about the dirtiest, grimiest, most corrupt, and let’s face, mind-numbingly stupid profession that you can...

There’s only one thing I like more than a good book and that’s  a good book set outside of my own culture. Do you, too, love discovering countries that you haven’t been to yet through fiction? Then you’ll definitely want to read my thoughts on THE MARRIAGE BUREAU FOR RICH PEOPLE by Farahad Zama. Why I Decided To Read It: I met book blogger, Reads4Pleasure through twitter and started reading her wonderful review blog. She made THE MARRIAGE BUREAU FOR RICH PEOPLE  sound so intriguing that I surprised myself by downloading the book on her suggestion alone — the first of many suggestions taken, as it turns out, we have really similar reading tastes. What Makes It Different: This is basically the novel version of Love Actually with Indians and arranged marriages — that is to say fantastically unique and familiar at the same time. Westerners will have no problem finding their way “in.” What I Loved: I didn’t quite realize how interested I was in the process of arranged marriages until I started reading this book. I loved all the marriage anecdotes peppered throughout and all the people we meet when they come in to join the agency. If this book doesn’t get a British movie deal or at the very least a BBC mini-series within next three years, then I’m going to send a very nasty letter to both the British Film Council and the BBC. One last thing, Zama sets up one of the best ironic situations I’ve found in a novel this year: the main character founds a successful marriage bureau and starts arranges several marriages, save that of his son, who is unmarriageable for reasons I’ll let you discover. Brilliant! What I Didn’t Like: It bit of a creaky...

So I finished reading this book while on my Fall tour back in October, but I wanted to save my thoughts until the week of the Circle of Sisters Book Club, because I know we’re all excited about meeting up THIS SATURDAY in NYC for a special reading and talk with Attica Locke, Dolen Perkins-Valdez, Terry McMillan and me. Right? Right? Get more info on the event HERE. And get my thoughts on GETTING TO HAPPY by Terry McMillan below. Why I Decided to Read It: Well, I read HOW STELLA GOT HER GROOVE BACK while traveling by train and bus from Beijing to Datong, China, and I’ve been a fan ever since. Also, she was the first author I ever saw use “like” in a novel — a practice I will defend to the death. AND it’s the sequel to my favorite 4-friend novel of all time WAITING TO EXHALE. What Makes It Different: And oh, did I mention that she didn’t decide to visit them just a few years later like some authors would? No, she actually gave us a novel about fabulous 50-year-olds. Yes! Also, funnily enough, I met up with Maggie Linton, the host of the”This is Audible” radio broadcast while I was in Washington D.C. I mentioned that I was reading GETTING TO HAPPY and she was like, “Have you heard the audio book?” Then when I said I hadn’t, she said, “Oh no, no, no. You have to listen to the audiobook.” And she gave me a free copy. Now I was enjoying reading the book, but I ended up switching to the audio book based on Maggie’s recommendation, and it was sooooo GOOD. Four different voices, including Gloria Reuben (ER) as Bernadette, S. Epatha Merkerson (LAW &...

Have you heard of this book FREEDOM by Jonathan Franzen? Sadly, it hasn’t gotten very much coverage, but I decided to do the author a favor and talk about it on this blog anyway. It’s just so sad when good books don’t get the attention they deserve. Why I Decided to Read It: Seriously though, everyone’s been talking about this novel. Franzen was on the cover of TIME . The NYT was brought to task for not reviewing more women because of how much they liked this book. It’s an Oprah Book Club pick. I actually had quite a few other reasons to read this novel. 1) As a reader I like to read what the public is reading, just to see what all the excitement is about. I hate feeling left out of a conversation. 2) I never read THE CORRECTIONS, so I felt like I owed the author one. 3) As someone working on her second novel, I’ve become obsessed with non-debuts as of late. This is Franzen’s fourth and reportedly best novel, which really inspires me. What Makes It Different: This is basically a domestic drama written by a man. Except it’s really, really well-written. At one point I realized that this story could be summed up as Family Ties without the unnecessary youngest third sibling (sorry, Tina Yothers) and a Mallory who wasn’t stupid. What I Loved: Well, what sets this apart from other domestic dramas is that it incorporates a lot of political and philosophical ideas that you’re not likely to find in a many other domestic drama novels, and it does so, without turning the novel into a rambling mess. Also, if you thought Franzen spent the majority of the last nine years between novels procrastinating, you would...

Wow, I haven’t filed a report on a sci-fi/fantasy novel in a while now, and what a wonderful way to come back to the genre. This week I’m talking about the much ballyhooed African sci-fi/fantasy novel, WHO FEARS DEATH by Nnedi Okorafor. Why I Decided To Read It: About three weeks before my own novel released, the internet seemed to explode with the WHO FEARS DEATH meme. I had to stop reading several reviews after the first paragraph, b/c people were so rapturous about this novel and being a nerd to my very core I’m deathly afraid of spoilers. So I downloaded it from Audible.com, quick like a bunny … but didn’t get around to reading it until like four months later. What It’s About: A young sorceress (and product of a rape) named Onyesonwu sets out to stop the genocide of her mother’s people. What Makes It Different: Wait, a novel set in Africa in which the main character is both a woman and powerful? What! What I Loved: Guys. I’ve been trying to figure out why I loved this novel so much, and one word keeps on popping up: hero. This book has a hero — I mean a real hero. I mean a “move over Clint Eastwood” em-effin HERO. Onyesonwu is fierce and intelligent. Never backs down. I could go on and on, but you know, spoilers. Anyway, this novel has replaced THE MAGICIANS as my favorite book of the year. Yes, it’s that good. When it was done, I just shook my head and said, “You wrote that, Ms. Okorafor. You WROTE that.” What I Didn’t Like: The novel starts with a flash forward to a future event, then jumps back in time to the beginning-beginning. The story is strong...

It occurs to me that I haven’t done a graphic novel in awhile, so here are my thoughts on ELK’S RUN by Joshua Hale Fialkov. Why I Decided To Read It: During my first and so far, only San Diego Comic-Con, I met Fialkov (who had just launched this series) through friend of FaN, Clark Perry. The comic’s original distributor, though committed wasn’t great about regular release dates for new issues, so eventually I abandoned the series, only to find out just this year that Fialkov found a new distributor and released it as a graphic novel. Nice! What It’s About: It’s technically about a teenager, living in a mysterious town, of which his Vietnam war-vet, taciturn, and bat-ish-crazy father is a founding member. The people in this town don’t have to work if they don’t wish to. But they’re not allowed to leave, and when one of the town members kills a child while trying to sneak out, all heck breaks loose. What Makes It Different: If you think your father was toxic, this guy will make him look like Ward Cleaver. What I Loved: The story was both suspenseful and thought-provoking. Unlike most other graphic novels, every act of violence resonated. In many ways, this comic is less cartoony than many books and movies that center around violence. What I Didn’t Like: Like LOST, quite a few questions got left unanswered. And I don’t think the author is planning a sequel to give us those answers. Sad face. Writing Lessons Learned: What If Your Father/Husband/Neighbor Was…: In any other book, the father character would have been either the main character or the main villain.  In ELK’S RUN, however, we get the story from the POV of not only the father, but also...

It’s been a while since I reviewed a non-fiction book, but I’m making them more of a priority in my reading pile. I’ve had so many people tell me that they only read non-fiction, that I’ve vowed not to become one of those people who only read fiction, which I pretty much was before meeting the only non-fiction readers. Anywho, I do have two non-marketing-based books coming up in this series before the end of the year. But until then, here’s yet another review of a marketing book: THE PURPLE COW by Seth Godin Why I Decided To Read It: While doing marketing research for 32 CANDLES, I kept stumbling across the cult of Seth Godin. THE PURPLE COW isn’t his most recent book, but the title intrigued me, so I downloaded it on my iPad. What It’s About: How to market your product in an age when TV and print advertisements have pretty much reached their saturation points. What Makes It Different: This book is basically an homage to products that marketed in a different way. What I Loved: I love that Godin encourages his readers to take risks, and think differently about the way we market our products. He has an extremely strong writing voice, which made this a very easy read. I felt like I was learning and receiving an inspirational message at the same time. It was also great to see how many things 32 CANDLES had gotten right in purple cow terms like the cover, and going hardcore after a specific group (my goal is that every black woman with a natural has heard about this book by year’s end) as opposed to casting the widest net possible. What I Didn’t Like: The cover art really didn’t do the...

So this is my second book review of the year inspired by a suggested book from our Fierce and Nerdy book blogger, Amy Brown. The first book, THE MAGICIANS by Lev Grossman turned out to be my favorite book of the year so far. But what did I think of THE PARTICULAR SADNESS OF LEMON CAKE by Aimee Bender? Read on to find out! Why I Decided To Read It: B/c Amy made it sound soooo intriguing. What It’s About: A girl discovers at a young age that she can tastes the emotions and inner lives of the people who prepare and make the food that she’s eating. What Makes It Different: You know how they say white Americans can’t do magic realism? This is really good magic realism. And it’s really good precisely because this family is so very WASPish. What I Loved: The writing is in one word: exquisite. I mean really, really exquisite. Spare and potent, just the way I like it. Also, the concept is killer, and I thought the hotly debated ending was perfect. I also loved that the whole thing was set in my beloved L.A. What I Didn’t Like: I listened to the book and it felt like the author spent chapters and chapters describing the main character’s home and family. I actually put it down and listened to a whole nother book before coming back to this one. So I’d say give it about 100 pages to really get good and cracking. It’s worth the journey in, though. Writing Lessons Learned: It’s the writing stupid. This book really made me want to write better than I do. I always do my best when it comes to my own writing, but this book reminded me that I could...

So if you saw me IRL in August, you already know that I was just obsessed with GIRL IN TRANSLATION by Jean Kwok. What a great way to end the summer. Why I Decided To Read It: Last spring it seemed like everybody was talking about this book, and it felt like I kept running into mentions of it everywhere I went online. So I decided to download the audiobook and see what all the fuss was about. What It’s About: A Chinese girl moves with her mother to New York in 1997 after the Hong Kong handover. They are then put to work by her miserable aunt in her uncle’s horrible sweatshop. What Makes It Different: I’ve never read a novel from the perspective of the daughter of a sweatshop worker. For me at least, this was a whole new POV. What I Loved: Since I was actually in Beijing during the Hong Kong handover, I found it particularly fascinating to think about someone coming to the States at the same time. I loved the main character, Kimberly, and felt very inspired by her spunk and can-do. What I Didn’t Like: I can’t discuss it without spoilers. So read the book, then we can talk about it. Suffice it say, it’s nothing so major that it would make me not recommend the book as a whole. Writing Lessons Learned: Embrace American values. What’s interesting is this felt story more American than most novels I read, in that the main character is chasing after the American dream of money and prestige, using sheer grit, hard work, and intelligence to achieve her goals. It made me cheer for Kimberly from the beginning because she’s so emblematic of a core American value. Make your obstacles bigger....

Oh, I’ve been a reading fool over the last few weeks, and therefore have a backlog of books to talk about over the next few weeks, starting off with SUBSTITUTE ME by fellow Smithie, Lori L. Tharps. Why I Decided To Read It: Ya’ll know how I like to represent for my clique, so it will probably come as no surprise that I’ll read anything by a fellow Smith College grad. Also, my editor sent me the ARC, so score! What It’s About: A smart white woman in her 30s hires a smart (but directionless) black woman in her 30s to be her nanny. What Makes It Different: You know, I’ve read fiction from the working mother’s perspective and I’ve read fiction from the nanny’s perspective, but I can’t ever remember reading it from both perspectives with the husband’s POV thrown in. That made SUBSTITUTE ME particularly fascinating. What I Loved: Oh, this book did a number on me. I talked about it with just about EVERYONE and I even got up at 6am a couple of days in a row, just so I could finish reading it. I loved that I had no idea what would happen next or how it would all turn out. What I Didn’t Like: The featured baby is a complete angel, never interrupts, doesn’t throw temper tantrums, sits there quietly while the grown folks carry out their assorted dramas. As the mother of a completely opposite 14-month-old, this made me hiss. Writing Lessons Learned: Give Book Clubs Something To Talk About. I  really, really want to talk about all the controversial ideas, situations, and plot points in this novel with someone. I’m sad that most of my mom friends haven’t read it yet, b/c I want to discuss...

So yeah, remember how I got all sentimental during BOOK WEEK back in June and vowed to keep on reading a book a week for the rest of the year? Yeah, well so far that’s not going so hot. But I’m committed to reading a book a week from this week forward, and we’ll be hosting another BOOK WEEK before the end of the year, so that I can catch up and claim my 52 books read by hook or by crook. Wait for it. Meanwhile, here are my thoughts on THE GIRL WHO CHASED THE MOON by Sarah Addison Allen. Why I Decided To Read It: I adored both GARDEN SPELLS and THE SUGAR QUEEN, so I was somewhat aghast to learn that I had full-on missed the release of THE GIRL WHO CHASED THE MOON back in March. What It’s About: Um, let’s see, well this teenager’s activist mother dies, so she moves in with her grandfather, who happens to be a giant and he lives in a small town, which has a lot of magical things going on. She finds out that her mother back in the day then was nothing like the woman she knew. Mom was a mean girl and did something so terrible that the town hates her for it. However, the former goth chyck that her mother used to pick on takes the teenager under her wing while trying to avoid the attentions of the popular guy that one-night-standed her and then ditched her when they were back in high school. What Makes It Different: This is kind of like Romeo & Juliet meets Alice Hoffman meets LIKE WATER FOR CHOCOLATE. A truly compelling read with a lot of elements you wouldn’t necessarily put together like romance...

So my book-a-week challenge was supposed to be done at 25 books, but a funny thing happened on the way to finishing it. I discovered that I didn’t want it to end. I’ve truly enjoyed being back in the reading habit, and I really can’t think of any reason not to keep it going. So here’s hoping that I make it to 52 books by New Year’s Eve, First up in the resurrected challenge: A SPOT OF BOTHER by Mark Haddon. Why I Decided To Read It: This was another Altadena library shelf find. I just adored Haddon’s THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT TIME, so I snapped this audiobook up when I found it. What It’s About: A British family, which consists of a retired stiff-upper-lipped dad, a bored-and-cheating mother, a gay son, and a divorced, single-mother daughter who announces at the the front of the book that she’s marrying her nice-but-not-particularly-bright boyfriend — everyone in the family thinks she can do better, but are mostly too polite to say so. The story revolves around her nuptials. What Makes It Different: This book is so British, it’s comical, but at the same time it manages to go deep into the hearts and minds of what could have been stock characters. It’s the literary answer to movies like Father of the Bride. What I Loved: I loved the moments that happen (sometimes funny, sometimes sad), because no one talks to each other. I found the exploration of dating beneath yourself compelling, as I did the meditation on “loving the one you’re with.” What I Didn’t Like: The brother’s boyfriend gets short shrift. It felt like we never really knew him. Also, though the book gets good and cracking by the middle, the...

Oh noes, we’re down to the last book of my promise to read a book a week before my own book 32 CANDLES comes out (tomorrow). It’s been such a delight, and I’ve already decided to keep the Dear Thursday review as an occasional blogumn for the rest of the year. There are quite a few books on my to-read shelf that I want to give you thoughts on, so I’ll definitely be reporting back on those. Meanwhile, I figured that I should end my 6-month reading series with 32 CANDLES since I did read it (yet again) this year. Also, it comes out tomorrow, so … without further ado, my thoughts on this book I rarely talk about, 32 CANDLES by Ernessa T. Carter. Why I Decided To (Re)Read It: This was my last read-through before publication, so I read it out loud, agreed to certain copy edit changes and tried to look at it with new eyes — which was rather hard, since this was the third time I was reading it since selling it to Harper Collins. Also, I have a stated policy against re-reading or re-watching anything, so I found this final really difficult. What It’s About: It’s about Davie Jones, a girl growing up mute, poverty-stricken, and deeply unpopular in Mississippi. Despite that, she decides to pursue a Molly Ringwald Ending (an against-all-odds happy ending) after seeing the movie, SIXTEEN CANDLES. Much drama ensues. What Makes It Different: Basically there was a character I wasn’t seeing in literature: the black woman with Anne-of-Green-Gables spunk. So I wrote her out of a desire to know her. Also after reading one too many chicklit novels, populated by gorgeous and successful heroines, I wanted to write a late bloomer who was awkward...

Aa most of you know, I don’t usually  blog on the weekends, unless someone has died — BTW, RIP Jose Saragamo. You can read my review of his novel, BLINDNESS here. I’m making an exception to my usual blogging rules, b/c I’m bound and determined to catch up on this promise to read a book a week, before my own book, 32 CANDLES, comes out on Tuesday. So lo and behold, I present my first “Sensational Saturday” blogumn with my thoughts on BAYOU by Jeremy Love, which is perhaps the best graphic novel I’ve ever read. Why I Decided To Read It: I walked into the Altadena Library and this graphic novel was on display in their special “New Books” section, which I think means new-to-them, since it came out back in June 2009. I’d never heard of Jeremy Love before, and I adre giving new graphic novels a chance. So I picked it up, without reading the back cover. Most pleasant surprise of the year. What It’s About: This one is a bit hard to fully describe, but it’s about a little girl named, Lee, living with her sharecropper father in the Jim Crow south. She has a white best friend named Lily, who disappears under magical circumstances. When Lee’s father is jailed under suspicion of having raped and killed Lily, Lee sets out to find Lily before the gathering lynch mob kills her father. Toward the beginning of her quest, she meets Bayou, the title character. What Makes It Different: This is basically Alice in Wonderland with a way more interesting lead character and higher stakes. It somehow manages to be both historical and wildly imaginative at the same time. Also, how many magical tales have you read set in the Jim...

a yearlong diary in three-line poems by Jeff Rogers, day 298 So the Wind Won’t Blow it All Away by Richard Brautigan Had to read the book very slowly. Every line so beautiful and sad, So known and understood, that over and over and over again It broke my fuckin’...

Remember how I promised you that I would eventually review a non-marketing piece of non-fiction, because I wasn’t completely self-absorbed and could in fact read non-fiction that didn’t either 1) directly benefit me or 2) teach me how to do stuff. You probably didn’t believe me. “Ernessa, you’re just makin promises you won’t keep (again),” you probably thought to yourself. But then … BAM, today I’ve got thoughts on BITCH IS THE NEW BLACK by Helena Andrews — yes, an actual memoir! Who’s all about keeping her promises now? (Ignore the fact that I’m still four books away from my promise to read a book a week until my own book, 32 CANDLES launches). Why I Decided To Read It: Okay, well Erica Kennedy (FEMINISTA, BLING), adores this chyck IRL. Also, she’s a label mate, being Harper-produced and we have the same cover designer, Archie Ferguson. So you know how when someone tells you that your distant cousin,  ReeRee, who you’ve never met,  is in some horror movie, and you go to see it even if you don’t particularly like horror movies? — that’s kind of how I felt about reading this book. I don’t go out of my way to read memoir, but I ordered a copy of BitNB for both my bookcase and my iPad. What It’s About: Basically it’s a collection of essays about dating, family, career, and pets. If I were not black, I might say it’s a collection of essays about tackling dating, family, career, and pets as a black woman, But despite a certain Washington Post article that hit the internets like a viral bomb, this book isn’t about the collective black woman experience, it really is a memoir about Andrews’s one-of-a-kind life. What Makes It Different: Well, Andrews...

Well, I haven’t done a non-fiction book in a while. And sorry guys, this is yet another marketing book. But I promise to talk about some non-marketing non-fiction before this challenge over. That all apologized, let’s open up FASCINATE by Sally Hogshead. Why I Decided To Read It: Trish from “Creative Beasts” suggested it in a post that I read right around the time that I received my iPad. Serendipity. What It’s About: It’s about fascinating products and people, which have a lot in common with each other even though one is inanimate and the other organic. What Makes It Different: Most marketing books I’ve read talk about how to sell yourself or your product. This one talks about how to fascinate people. Basically instead of getting people to like you or your product, manipulating how they think about you and your product. What I Loved: As promised the book was fascinating, longer than any other marketing book I’ve read thus far, but also more readable and hard to put down. I loved how Hoghead dissects the popularity of certain items and people. These anecdotes inspired me to really think about how to better market 32 CANDLES in the future. I also loved the book cover. What great colors. If I had to pick a marketing book based on its cover alone, I would choose this one. What I Didn’t Like: Hogshead spends a ton of time on anecdotes. I enjoyed each and everyone of these, but I would have preferred that she use less of these and expand the last section which actually talked about applying fascination triggers to your product. I didn’t feel equipped to utilize many of the fascination triggers she discusses throughout the book. It’s kind of like reading Shakespeare...

I’m so excited to kick off BOOK WEEK with the very first book I read on my iPad (best Mothers Day Gift ever), the graphic novel; THE UMBRELLA ACADEMY: APOCALYPSE SUITE by Gerard Way (yes, written by that Gerard Way of My Chemical Romance fame) and Gabriel Ba (art). Why I Decided To Read It: I actually found this through my old job as the writer for American Top 40 with Ryan Seacrest. My Chemical Romance kept on charting, so I had to keep on finding things to say about them, and the story popped up that the lead singer had struck a deal to write a comic book series. I simply adore MCR — they’re my favorite of all the emo bands. I declared The Black Parade brilliant on first listen, and if they do go through with their threat to make the next album a stripped down rock album (seriously why do so many electronic rock bands do this? I’m looking a you, MGMT!), I will just pretend that they stopped at The Black Parade. Anyway, I kept on forgetting to give this series a read, then lo and behold, I found the entire graphic novel on the Dark Horse Comics app for iPad. What It’s About: In either our future or some kind of alternative future or some kind of parallel world, 43 mostly single women around the world with no signs of pregnancy spontaneously give birth. These babies all have powers, and an eccentric, swashbuckling alien adopts seven of them. These two girls and five boys are our main characters and according to their adoptive father, meant to save the world. After a few glimpses of their pretty effed-up childhood (the alien while swashbuckling is also emotionally distant and withholding), the...

Okay, apparently I’m 6 books behind my goal of a book-a-week until my own comes out. But I’m determined to catch up before June 22. Thus, I’m declaring next week BOOK WEEK here at Fierce and Nerdy. Not only will I catch up on my reading challenge, but we’ll all be talking books, books, books. So do join us next Monday for that. Meanwhile, my thoughts on the last chicklit book of my challenge, SECRETS OF HAPPINESS by Sarah Dunn, after the jump: Why I Decided To Read It: There are only a few authors in the entire chicklit movement that I’ll read in hardcover and as soon as their book comes out, no questions asked, no need to explain to me what their book is about. And Sarah Dunn is one of those authors. As a recovering Lutheran school grad, I adored her first book THE BIG LOVE (2005) and recommended it to just about everybody I knew. So how chagrinned was I when I found out that she had released her second book, SECRETS OF HAPPINESS over a year ago? I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, my favorite authors need to blog, so that I can keep up with them. That’s all. What It’s About: This one is a multiple-character novel, but the main-main character is a neurotic, ex-evangelist and divorced television writer, living in New York with a much younger lover. We’re introduce to an assortment of her associates, including her adulterous married bestie, her ex-boyfriend, her gay male writing partner, and the sister of her young lover. What Makes It Different: In a genre littered with multiple-female-only POV books, this was a refreshing change of pace. What I Loved: If you don’t like Woody Allen, you will...

Guys, I have so many books in my hop right now: graphic novels, non-fiction, memoir, young adult, sci-fi, women’s fiction — all sorts of stuff. It’s been such a pleasure to read so much lately, and I can’t wait to share my thoughts on them. But til then let’s talk about what will probably be last non-American read of the summer — actually I’m listening to Mark Haddon’s SPOT OF BOTHER right now in the car, but it’s a little boring in an English PBS sort of way, so if it doesn’t pick up soon, I’m going to have to switch it out, even though I absolutely adored THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG AT MIDNIGHT. But enough about that other stuff, here are my thoughts on GIRLS OF RIYADH by Rajaa Alsanea. Why I Decided To Read It: One of the things I’m going to miss most about Altadena, is the library. Their audiobook section is both magical and ever-changing, seemingly yielding an audiobook I want to listen every time I visit, no matter how many times I scour through it. This particular book had a great cover and an intriguing premise, so I picked it up, not knowing what to expect. What It’s About: Sex in the City meets Saudi Arabia’s Velvet Class. It follows the educational, career, and love lives of four women from wealthy families. What Makes It Different: Though this novel owes a lot to Sex in the City, there’s barely any kissing and sex is only alluded to. It was like reading a present-day Victorian novel with lots of unfamiliar fashion terms (to me) like abaya. Also, the book is written as a sort of email epistolary. What I Loved: I’m a sucker for chick lit — set...

On Wednesday morning I noticed that this week was basically morphing into TV week here at Fierce and Nerdy, so I decided to keep that going by making FLASHFORWARD, the novel on which the recently-canceled ABC series was based, the first novel that I read on my iPad (in iBooks). Why I Decided To Read It: Funnily enough I didn’t even know the television series had a novel progenitor, so when I found out, I downloaded it immediately, wondering if it was any better than the lackluster show. What It’s About: One day in 2009, every single person in the world blacks out and has a “flash forward” vision of 21 years into the future. The novel deals with the social, ethical, and scientific fallout from the blackout, following varied characters at CERN, the organization responsible for the Large Hadron Collider. It’s an ensemble piece, which switches POV among a cast of mostly CERN scientists. But Lloyd Simcoe, the scientist who co-created the experiment that is running in the LHC at the moment of the blackout, is our guide character and the one we hear from most. We also follow his partner, Theo Procopides, who discovers that he’ll be murdered two days before the FLASHFORWARD, and now must find out how and why. What Makes It Different: This novel might sound fantastical, but it thoroughly grounds itself in science. Also people stop and talk, I mean really talk, about scientific theory. I’ve never read anything quite like it. Also, it should be noted that Sawyer, an avid futurist, wrote this novel in 1999. So it’s interesting to see how he envisioned both the near future of 2009 and the far future of 2030. He pretty much nailed 2009, except for black Americans insisting on...

Okay, I know that I haven’t been great about keeping up with my book-a-week pledge, but I’ve reset and am totally fixing to catch up before 32 CANDLES  comes out. That all excused, here are my thoughts on FROM CAPE TOWN WITH LOVE by Steven Barnes, Tananarive Due, and (fellow CMU-grad) Blair Underwood. Why I Decided To Read It: Ooh yay, my first full disclosure, since full disclosure rules were introduced: I was sent an ARC, and Tananarive is on my Top Ten Writers of All Time list, so I was on board to read. What It’s About: In his third outing, bodyguard/actor/detective, Tennyson Hardwick, is charged with protecting the adopted South African child of an A-list movie star and then must find her when she is kidnapped by the South African mafia. What Makes It Different: You know how black actors are always saying that they want to be the black James Bond, but we’re never going to see a movie like that, because Hollywood is so slow to change its ways? This is kind of like the novelization of that movie. What I Loved: Great settings, and for a nerd like me, a fascinating introduction to Los Angeles’s popular kids. I also loved Tennyson’s cranky retired-cop father. What I Didn’t Like: Tennyson is a ridiculous slut. At one point, he’s beating himself up with his urgency to save the kidnapped two-year-old — but then stops to have rather complicated sex a few pages later. Oohkay… Writing Lessons Learned: Setting, Setting, Setting. I always find books set in Los Angeles fascinating, because unlike New York stories (which can basically be broken down along class lines), every author seems to have a different version of Los Angeles. I loved that Tennyson had to deal with solving...

Now two books behind on my reading goal, but this might be a good thing as I can do a whole week of book reviews if I keep it up. Go Team! Anyway, let’s get back into the swing of things with a book I’ve been meaning to read for over five years. Ah well, better late than never. Why I Decided To Read It: Saw the audiobook at the library and was like, “Oh wait, I’ve been meaning to read that for years now!” So I picked it up. What It’s About: Six Austenites of different ages and lifestyles form a book club. What Makes It Different: Austen homages are huge now, but I think this might have been the first. What I Loved: Well, being in the “she’s awright” camp on the whole Jane Austen fandom thing, this book didn’t irritate me with it’s super-fandom. It was also twee and light — yet surprisingly deep at parts. What I Didn’t Like: This book is very, very, very white bread — I mean really white bread. And the dialogue wasn’t stellar. Everyone kind of sounds alike. Writing Lessons Learned: Find your passion. This novel shouldn’t have been my cup of tea. It’s vignettey, and nothing much happens, and it has like zero-diversity — but I thoroughly enjoyed it because the characters (and obviously the author) were so very passionate about Austen. Passion makes up for a lot. Sweat the little stuff. What’s really interesting about this novel is that all the interesting stuff happens between the chapters. If someone gets hurt, in an argument, or broken up with, we don’t see it. So there’s lots of emphasis on the little stuff like memories and social hiccups, and that lack of conflict makes for...

Long post title, but the book is fairly short since it’s a graphic novel. So w/o further ado, here are my thoughts on THE ZOMBIE SURVIVAL GUIDE: RECORDED ATTACKS by Max Brooks. Why I Decided To Read It: See this is why I plan to personally walk down to my local library and ask for prominent placement in their “New Arrivals” section. I was walking into the library, saw this book, picked it up, and was intrigued enough to check it out. What It’s About: From what I can tell, Max Brooks had written another graphic novel called WORLD WAR Z, about a zombie war that nearly takes out humanity. This graphic novel is a sort of prequel. What Makes It Different: It literally is an illustrated listing of recorded zombie attacks. What I Loved: The recorded attacks take place on every continent save Antarctica, and it was a fantastic way to revisit many different eras in history. Wonderful artwork by Ibraim Roberson. What I Didn’t Like: The political stuff is a bit simple. Also the listiness didn’t exactly make this graphic novel a fevered read. I’ve been checking and re-checking this book out since January, and the only reason I went ahead and finished it, is because it’s due back tomorrow, and I doubt the library will let me recheck it out a kajillionth time. Also, no illustration credit given on the front cover for Ibraim Roberson. Are you kidding me??? Not cool… Writing Lessons Learned: Everything’s more interesting with zombies. A lot of this felt like history we already knew … but WITH ZOMBIES. Think a TransAtlantic crossing was bad for regular slaves — try doing it with ZOMBIE SLAVES. Think kung fu masters are badass? Try Kung Fu Masters who have...

Toward the beginning of the year, my favorite chicklit author, Marian Keyes, posted this message on her site: My dear amigos, happy new year to you all and I hope your festive season was not too unpleasant. I’m very sorry but this is going to be a very short piece because I am laid low with crippling depression. Regular readers know that I’ve been prone to depression on and off over the years but this is in a totally different league. This is much much worse. I know I’m leaving myself open to stinky journalists saying ‘What has she got to be depressed about, the self-indulgent whiner, when there are people out there with real troubles?’ so I won’t go on about it. All I will say is that I’m aware that these are terrible times and that there are people out there who have been so ruined by the current economic climate that they’ve lost the roof over their heads and every day is a battle for basic survival and I wish I could make their pain go away. But although I’m blessed enough to have a roof over my head, I still feel like I’m living in hell. I can’t eat, I can’t sleep, I can’t write, I can’t read, I can’t talk to people. The worst thing is that I feel it will never end. I know lots of people don’t believe it, but depression is an illness, but unlike say, a broken leg, you don’t know when it’ll get better […][…] So amigos, I’m sorry to abandon you for the moment. Full service will be restored at some stage, I hope. Thank you in advance for your kindness because you’ve always been so lovely to me and once again Happy New...

Funnily enough, this is only the the second book of the year by an author I’ve already read before. Go figure. Why I Decided To Read It: I used to be a HUGE Nick Hornby fan … before grad school and his many movie deals. And somehow I didn’t realize that I was no longer reading his stuff, until I ran across this audiobook at the library. So it felt a little bit like reconnecting with an old friend who I hadn’t seen in over ten years and being reminded of why I liked him so much in the first place. What’s It About: Four disparate people decide to attempt suicide in the exact same way. Upon running into each other while trying to commit said suicide, they form quirky suicide club instead. As you do… What Makes It Different: Suicide as humor isn’t necessarily new, but this is like suicide as humor times four. What I Loved: This novel was ridiculously cynical in a really wonderful way. Also, the four characters really do come from different walks of life. I’m a plot-driven writer myself, so it was really refreshing to read stream-of-consciousness that didn’t make me want to bang my head against a wall. Last but not least, the dialogue was top-notch. What I Didn’t Like: There was one American musician character in this lot who was such a cup of tepid tea, that I felt sorry for the interesting character that could have taken his place in this book. This could have been made up for by his insights on being an artist, but unfortunately those came too late in the book for me to truly take an interest in his character. I never got over my dislike. Also, the ending in...

Yes, yes, I know it’s Week 10 of 2010, but I promise to catch up by next week. Wait for it! Why I Decided To Read It: As an early Buffy the Vampire Slayer adopter, Banks basically had me at a “black vampire slayer.” What’s It About: Damali, a 20-year-old LA spoken word artist and neteru (vampire huntress) who is about to come into all of her powers when she turns 21. She’s also juggling a difficult romance with a drug dealer from her past named Carlos Rivera. What Makes It Different: Dark-skinned heroine who rocks dredlocks and kills vampires. What doesn’t make it different? What I Loved: Hot paranormal romance featuring black people. Woo-hoo! Also, I love that Damali leads a diverse team. And I tend not to like bad boys IRL or in lit, but Carlos Riveras is a very sexy hero. Oh, and way sexy cover. Yay. What I Didn’t Like: This isn’t so much a fully-realized novel as the first part of a multi-part story. It felt like the book ended mid-action when I was just really getting into it! And alas, since I’m trying to read a new author every week, I won’t have time to find out what happened until next year. Boo! Also, as a former denizen of North Hollywood, I found it hard to believe that there would be a “really hot” club there. Seriously, I wished — but I always had to drive when I wanted to hit a good club with my girlfriends. Writing Lessons Learned: Action first, THEN team. I loved how Banks introduced Damali and her team. Basically after a couple of prologues we see the team in action on a big vampire kill THEN we meet them as individuals. Simple-yet-complicated love...

Wow, two whole months of reading or listening to books every week. Glorious! Of all the indulgences I could have allowed myself this year, I can’t think of one better than this. That all said, her are my thoughts on A GOOD YEAR by Peter Mayle. Why I Decided To Read It: I make it a policy to read any book that I run across that’s been made into a movie, and I ran across this one in the library. I should also say that I’m constantly surprised about what does and doesn’t get made. I haven’t seen the Ridley Scott movie, starring Russell Crowe, which arose from this book, but I could see the attraction for a big movie director, looking to make a little movie. This is certainly a little book. What’s It About: Max, a British investment broker with debt issues, gets a big deal stolen our from under him and is fired by his boss. Just when everything seems lost, he inherits an old broken-down French winery from his uncle. Cue the quaint characters and a surprise cozy mystery. What Makes It Different: This is basically travel chicklit, but with dudes. What I Loved: I love travel p*rn disguised as fiction, and this book was heavy on both travel and food p*rn. The plot was basically something that happened between huge meals, lots of wine, jokes about French people, and detailed descriptions of Provence. After reading so many heavy books, this was a nice palate cleanser. What I Didn’t Like: It makes me feel somewhat grumpy to say there wasn’t any real conflict and that the plot was thinner than prosciutto — but it was. And at no time did I feel a compelling need to actually finish this book....

I’ve been reviewing mostly fiction up to now, but as I mentioned last week, I’ve become very interested in fully learning the art of promotion before 32 CANDLES hits bookshelves. And sense I’m a page-to-life learner, I’ve been reading a lot of books on the subject. Here are my thoughts on the latest self-help-for-self-promotion book: GET KNOWN BEFORE THE BOOK DEAL by Christina Katz. Why I Decided To Read It: Like I said last week, I’m completely gung-ho about getting out there and promoting 32 CANDLES, I’m just not sure how to go about it. What’s It About: Building your platform, so that you can more easily get a fiction or non-fiction book deal. What Makes It Different: Unlike a lot of the other self-promotion books that I read, GET KNOWN is both comprehensive and engaging. Usually it’s either/or with these books. What I Loved: This is basically the self-promotion bible I’ve been waiting for. There were so many good ideas in here that I had never considered before. Ms. Katz is a straight-shooter and her writing style is both compelling and engaging. It felt less like a read and more like a conversation with a professional. I kept on having to put down the book and make notes, I got so inspired. Also, if you don’t have a platform, she helps you figure out how to get one. I absolutely think that every MFA student should get this upon graduation. Yes, seriously! What I Didn’t Like: You know how they say, “Don’t judge a book by its cover”? I think they should change that into a piece of advice for authors: “Readers do judge a book by its cover. They just can’t help it.” I’ll admit that I order six books on the...

Alright, don’t drop dead of shock, but I actually finished listening to this last book on time. So without further ado, here are my thoughts on THE LITTLE GIANT OF ABERDEEN COUNTY by Tiffany Baker Why I Decided To Read It: This book got great reviews and I just happened to read one of them before putting in a big order at audible.com. What’s It About: It’s a story about a little girlnamed Truly, growing up in Upstate New York, who has both an out-of-control pituitary gland and eating habit, which causes her to grow into a fat giant of a woman. What Makes It Different: Um, when’s the last time you read a story about plain female giant? What I Loved: I love unusual main characters, and this book certainly has that going for it. Baker creates a very rich history for her small town, with a compelling and complex cast of characters. Also, I loved that the main character gets a romantic relationship with a really lovely guy. What I Didn’t Like: This was waaaaaaaay too self-indulgent, with overworked metaphors and a plot that seemed to take forever to really get going — seriously Baker could have cut out a good quarter of the book and still told the story. I nearly switched audiobooks like three times while listen to the first bit.  Also, it employed a first-person omniscient narrator, which is one of my biggest pet peeves, b/c it takes me out of the story when I have to constantly ask, “How could she possibly know that???” Writing Lessons Learned: Go for the unique character. People will always read women-driven fiction centered around a traditionally beautiful woman, but they’ll remember stories like these, the stories centered around women who don’t often...

Oh guys, wifein’, motherin’, and visitin’-ailing-GIL-in-the-recovery-center-up-in-Santa-Maria ain’t easy, so last week’s book is once again late, but I promise to do better this week. Meanwhile, here are my thoughts on WENCH by Dolen Perkins-Valdez Why I Decided To Read It: About a month ago, Dawn Davis, my editor at HarperCollins/Amistad told me that she was really excited about this winter release, and then it seemed like I was hearing about it everywhere. So it made my must-read list. What’s It About: It’s a fictional story set at a real resort in pre-Civil War Ohio, where white slave owners used to take their black slave mistresses for summer vacay.  The book centers on one slave in particular named Lizzie (the optimistic one), and the three other slave women that she befriends at the resort: Mawu (the sassy one), Reenie (the serious one), and Sweet (the sweet one). It’s a bit like Slave and the City — except technically its set in the country. What Makes It Different: I have read many a slave story, but I have never read anything quite like this. The main character, a dark-skinned slave named Lizzie, who loves her master, and has two children waiting back home for her somehow reminded me of modern day women stuck in toxic relationships. It made the novel seem less removed from present day than any other novel I’ve ever read that was set in the this time period. What I Loved: First of all, the book is beautifully written. Also, it didn’t feel like a history lesson or a list of awful situations. I adored the complicated relationship between the women and the way Perkins-Valdez navigated race, class, love, fear, and motherhood. Basically motherhood in this book is both a saving grace (it...

My book for last week got read a few days late. Please forgive. But here are my thoughts on FLATLAND by Edwin A. Abbot. Why I Decided To Read It: A couple of weeks ago, this book was mentioned in passing on my favorite sitcom, Big Bang Theory, and I said, “What’s Flatland?” and my husband said, “You haven’t read FLATLAND???” Then he stomped over to our bookshelf and threw it down onto the coffee table. He didn’t say that he wouldn’t have married me if he had known I had yet to read this sci-fi classic, but it was implied by his tone of voice when he said, “You really want to read this.” What’s It About: It’s about one A. Square, a professor who lives among Circles (spiritual leaders and Statesmen), Hexagons/Pentagons (The Rich), Squares (Academics), and Triangles (Soldiers and the Working Class) in a two dimensional world. So imagine his surprise when a sphere from Spaceland pays him a visit. What Makes It Different: First of all it was written in 1884. So in reading it, you see a lot of old ideas [heavy allusion, metaphysics], but you get a feeling that everybody else who has written such things, read this first. I’ll bet you $2 Kurt Vonnegut read this before writing Slaughterhouse Five. What I Loved: This book blends science and religion together in a way that I can wholly swallow. And there was a certain thrill that I had while reading it, the feeling that oh yes, this is a dangerous book. Also, it’s a neat little primer for the concept of dimensions. Let me tell you, FLATLAND definitely has made my Top 20 Best Books of all time list, and I will make sure that my children and...

Just to refresh your memories, I’ve decided to read a book week until my own book, 32 CANDLES, comes out on June 22, 2010. So here goes this week’s review of Jose Saramago’s BLINDNESS. Why I Decided To Read It: The movie trailer made me think, “Now that’s a book I would like to read!” But I totally didn’t want to see the movie. Has that ever happened to you? What’s It About: It’s set in an unnamed city (which we’ll assume is in Portugal, since the author is Portuguese), in which a white-blindness is spreading like a contagious disease. To prevent the further spread of this strange blindness, Patient Zero and everyone with the sickness is interned in an old hospital. But the wife of the ophthalmologist (who tried to help Patient Zero after he was struck blind, only to be struck blind himself) accompanies him to the hospital, though she has not caught the blind sickness. But the disease keeps on spreading and society proceeds to break down. What Makes It Different: It’s basically an apocalypse novel but with blindness. Original yet familiar. What I Loved: Beautifully written and it illuminates the beauty of tragedy. Also it’s a rich study of how humans react to adversity. The Doctor’s Wife is an awesome character. The last few paragraphs made me cry, which was a little awkward, since I was at the mall when I finished it. The conflicts were sometimes big, sometimes anemic, which made the novel feel very real. What I Didn’t Like: I almost stopped listening to the audiobook after it took almost an hour just to get to the part where we meet the main character, the Doctor’s Wife. Also, the author is very self-indulgent and goes off on a...

So in the interest of procrastinating living well, I have decided to try reading or listening to a book a week and then reporting on it here. Hopefully this will inspire you guys to also read a few books while you’re waiting for 32 CANDLES to come out. Oh, and I’ve broken this review into sections, b/c that’s basically how I break books down when I’m reading and reviewing them in my head. So here goes: Why I Decided To Read It: I loved Erica Kennedy’s first novel, the hip-hop roman a clef, BLING, and I’ve basically been waiting for her to write another novel for over four years now. What’s It About: It’s about a writer, trying to find the perfect mate.I know what you’re thinking: Isn’t all chicklit about a writer trying to find the perfect mate? Same ole. Same ole. But in this case you’re wrong. See below. What Makes It Different: The main character, Sydney Zamora, has an extremely strong personality. She’s also smart and (gasp!) a feminist. Also, the love interest is complicated in a way that you’d expect a scion to be complicated in real life — but they’re rarely depicted this way in other chick lit and women’s fiction. What I Loved: I can’t remember the last time I read something romantic with a main character that described herself as a feminist. How refreshing. I also like that she was a complicated feminist and seemed to live by her own rulebook for Feminism. Plus, she’s mean. I love mean women. Also, the book is laugh-out-loud funny and really readable to the point where I had trouble putting it down. I really hope that Ms. Kennedy doesn’t make us wait another four years for her next novel. What...