bookshelves of doom

Not an Onion article:

Stephen King plots The Shining sequel.

Stephen, I love you. 

But I'm asking you.  Please.  FOR THE LOVE OF GOD.  LET IT BE.

Tom Cruise's New Moon audition.

Yes, OF COURSE it's a joke.  The guy's impersonation is so good that I found myself hating him as if he were actually guilty of being the real Tom Cruise!  Poor guy.  I hope people don't throw things at him on the street.

Oh, and I should note that I'm rather proud that I didn't recognize most of the quotes -- clearly, I've managed to avoid much of the TC oeuvre.  YES.  I RULE.

 

Un-dislikable.

Is that a word? 

Well, whatever.  You know what I mean.

Anyway, I'm talking about Robert Pattinson.  Who is quoted on cover of the current issue of Entertainment Weekly as saying, "The hair is 75% of my performance."

I'm so happy he still refuses to hire a publicist.

The Magicians -- Lev Grossman

Quentin Coldwater isn't a very happy person.  He's brilliant and well-off, his parents are nice enough, though vague and mostly absent.  His two best friends, James and Julia, are happily dating, though Quentin wishes he was the one dating Julia.   

The world is grey and cold and boring and predictable.  Secretly, he dreams of magic.  He daydreams about Fillory, wishes it was real.

Fillory is a Narnia-ish (very, very Narnia-ish) fantasy world described in a series of children's books originally published in the 1930s.  Most people Quentin's age left them behind years and years ago, but he didn't.  He still returns to them -- when he's bored (which is often), when he's upset (ditto), when he wants to escape (again, ditto).

Then, after a death at his Princeton interview leads to an encounter with a strange paramedic leads to an invitation to apply to Brakebills, a school in upstate New York that specializes in, you guessed, magic:

This was everything he'd always wanted, the break he'd given up on years ago.  It was right in front of him.  He was finally on the other side, down the rabbit hole, through the looking glass.  He was going to sign the papers and he was going to be a motherfucking magician.  Or what the hell else was he going to do with his life?

There was much chatter about The Magicians when it came out this summer.  It was touted as "fantasy for grown-ups", Harry Potter in the real world, Harry Potter in college.  It was described as original and epic and ground-breaking.

That's a whole lot of hype to live up to.

Is the hype accurate?  Well, as always, it depends on who you talk to.  The people doing the hyping, obviously, would say yes.  The people giving it one-star reviews at Amazon, obviously, would say no.

My opinion lands somewhere in the middle.  It was, for sure, a book that kept me reading -- I happily read all 400 pages in an afternoon.  As in any other fantasy novel set in a secret corner of our world, I enjoyed discovering it with Quentin:

Quentin was pretty sure that if he stood very still for a few seconds everything would snap back to normal.  He wondered if he was undergoing some dire neurological event.

I enjoyed most of the nods to previous works -- I didn't, as some readers have, see it as derivative -- because Quentin is such a fan, much of the book read like a tribute to fantasy-that-came-before.  And I loved the fact that the students took ideas for their offensive spells from D&D.

My major personal difficulty with the book boiled down to this:  Quentin Coldwater is not very likable.  He's selfish and apathetic, never happy with what he has, even when what he has is exactly what he originally thought he wanted.  He's the personification of the-grass-is-always-greener.  I never doubted him as a character -- he seemed very real to me -- but I didn't like him.  But I'm not sure if I was supposedto like him.  If this was a book about Magic in the Real World, it stands to reason that the hero wouldn't just not be heroic -- he wouldn't be a hero.  And, ultimately, I didn't see him as one.  He was just a protagonist.  Which, really, made sense.

Oddly, I seem to have talked myself into liking it more than I did originally.  Actually, maybe appreciating it is a better description. 

I think that many readers who pick this one up expecting a Grown-Up Version of Harry Potter will be disappointed.  The similarities pretty much begin and end with: Unhappy kid gets accepted into School of Magic.  The Magiciansisn't about the plotting (which, especially towards the end, was pretty weak) or about the world-building.  It's a coming-of-age story (though I don't know if I really believe that Quentin has actually come of age by the end) about a self-absorbed, not-very-impressive, extremely angsty young man.

__________________________________________________________________

Book source:  An ARC given to me by a library patron.

__________________________________________________________________

Cross-posted at Guys Lit Wire.

More amazing Twilight merchandise.

I give you:

 

handpainted sneakers at Etsy!

(I've got to hand it to the artist -- she goes all out on these, decorating the boxes and including sparkly shoelaces and everything.  Holy cow.)

(via Beth)

Slush Reading, Seuss Style.

From Jim C. Hines' Slush I Read:

Do you like fanfic with vamps?

I do not like them Mary Sue.
Why do these vamps all worship you?

Go!  Go!  Go read the entire thing, it all its hilarious glory!

(via OUP)

Ron Howard and H.P. Lovecraft?

Really?

Oookay.

From the LA Times:

"Look, it's challenging, but if we get it right, it could be really original and psychologically interesting and scary in a great way. And it's a graphic novel, this is new territory for me."

Well, here's hoping that it works.  If it does, I'll totally give him a high-five.

___________________________________________________________

In related news, due to @wendigratz, I now need to buy The Stars Are Right.

Not Tim Burton's Alice.

Hmmm.  I do like the shrinking room.  And the cast is way more interesting than Tim Burton's cast.

So, should I give Tin Man another chance or what?  I watched the first installment, but the pacing was so weird and it seemed like it was trying too hard and sometimes Zooey just... doesn't doing it for me.  And I found Claire from 90210 ridiculous rather than menacing.  Those lame tattoos?  Also... she's CLAIRE.

(via educating alice)

Meridian -- Amber Kizer

Meridian Sozu has always been unhealthy.  Her color is bad, she's lived most of her life in pain, and she's much too small for her age.

And there are the dead things.  They started small -- dead flies collected in her crib, a toad died next to her bed -- but as Meridian aged, the animals got bigger and their numbers grew.  Her backyard is a cemetery.

The situation has not gone unnoticed by her peers, and so Meridian Sozu is an outcast.  They call her "Reaper, Grave Digger, Witch".

Just after her sixteenth birthday she learned the truth.  She is a Fenestra: a half-angel, half-human being whose purpose is to transition souls to the afterlife.  Now that she is sixteen, she must learn to transition humans through, or she will die.

There are those who will help her, but there are those who do not want to see her survive.

Bloggers have been all over this one, it has strong reader reviews at Amazon, and I'm sure it'll be quite popular with the rapidly growing fanbase of romantic paranormal YA.  And really, I wouldn't be surprised to see it get adapted into a television show.

Personally, though, overall, I thought it was... okay.  I had a hard time believing in Meridian, because I didn't find her voice particularly believeable.  The writing, overall, felt uneven -- sometimes it was funny (if tv-ish):

"Don't tell me the 'go to the light' thing someone always says to dying people in movies is accurate."  I was trapped in a Lifetime special.

but sometimes it was... well:

I packed everything I think you'll want.  Please forgive me if I overlooked a beloved token of your childhood.  I did my best.  Your father sends his love.  Sam will miss you more than the rest of us combined, I fear.  You are one of the Chosen, Meridian.  For that I am both grateful and sorrowful.

Beloved token; I fear; grateful and sorrowful.  I have a difficult time imagining anyone actually using that language in this century. 

I had a hard accepting the idea that her parents knew what she was but withheld that knowledge, even though they knew she was miserable and hurting.  I understand denial, but that was too much for me to believe -- that they moved around the country to avoid trouble, but they treated her somewhat crappily and didn't prepare her for the future, all because they wanted her to have a "normal childhood". 

And Meridian was unfortunately one of those smart-but-dense types.  I spotted the villain immediately, and while it didn't take her all that long to catch up, it still took her too long.  For that matter, Auntie or Tens should have picked up on it ages before Meridian even came to town.

I did like how the villain used religion to gain followers.  Unlike the first few House of Night books, the book didn't feel offensively anti-Christian.  There was a sense of history that made me imagine the Aternocti using the same methods for centuries -- but the Big Bad ended up being so two-dimensional that he wasn't even remotely frightening.  When someone evil is trying to convince you to join his side, it seems like he'd use an argument a tad stronger than, "We're the winning team".  Especially after he'd been portrayed as so silver-tongued that he'd easily convinced an entire town to follow his Evil Lead.

Part of my problem was certainly my own -- due to chatter in the blogosphere, I expected something different.  Loads of people have been saying that this book is NEW and DIFFERENT, but I didn't see it that way.  I've seen Buffy.  Many times through.  And I've read a lot -- A LOT -- of books.  I'm very familiar with the Girl-With-A-Responsibility-To-The-World-Who-Doesn't-Really-Want-The-Responsibility-To-The-World-Because-Guess-What-She's-Sixteen storyline.  And then (kind of hilariously, but in a good way) right at the very end, Meridian morphed from Buffy into Supernatural.  (Which actually made me decide that, despite my reservations, I'll probably pick the next one out when it's released.  Lesson here?  Familiarity can go either way, depending on the whim of the reader.)  While I can't hold my expectations against the book, I can't say that they didn't color my reading of it.

So.  As I said.  I can't imagine that this one won't be popular with many of the Usual Suspects, as long as the issues mentioned don't drive them bananas.

____________________________________________________________________

I read this book for the R.I.P. IV challenge.

____________________________________________________________________

Book source:  Review copy from the publisher.

Here's one to look forward to...

...Maureen Johnson's new series, which involves modern-day Jack the Ripper killings and a British paranormal police force.

Aaaand the first one is due out mid 2011.

Rats.

When the book trailer may be better than the book.

Not even an attempt at a pun?

"'Twilight' fans can get happily get lost in corn"

It seems like the Deseret News could have come up with something. 

...

...

Nope, other than wanting to wish Bella away to the cornfield, I've got nothing.  So I guess I shouldn't give them a hard time.

...

...

What, you want to see a picture of said corn maze?

Here it is, in all of its New Moon-y glory:

Any idea what that little guy on the right is up to?  Is he part of the New Moon mazes?  What is he holding?  A microphone?  A lollipop?

(Photo via here, link via Misty -- thanks, Misty!)

Summer of Fear -- Lois Duncan

Things are good for Rachel Bryant.  She's almost sixteen, she's dating her shaggily handsome next-door neighbor, she and her best friend are tight as tight can be -- and it's lovely, lovely summertime.

Until the accident.  Her aunt and uncle die, and suddenly, a grieving cousin from the other side of the United States -- a girl Rachel hasn't ever even met -- is moving in.  For good.  Into Rachel's room.

At first, Rachel is determined to make the best of it -- to welcome Julia into the family, to console her, to become her almost-sister. 

But there's something not right about Julia.  Something... evil.

This being a Lois Duncan book, that's 'evil' with a capital 'E' and an additional pile of lowercase 'e's:  Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeevil.

I hadn't read this one since I was in middle school.  It holds up in some respects, not so much in others.  The majority of the book -- the Summer of Fear itself -- is a flashback.  The first few and last few pages are set in the misty future, where Rachel says things like:  "For too long now I've dwelt upon the past."  The tone of those sections reminded me very much of Flowers in the Attic, actually.  Which, I guess, given the fact that FitA was published three years later, isn't all that surprising.

Some of the dialogue is pretty unbelievable ("Do you recall the name of the village nearest to where they lived?" (16)), as is Rae's voice ("There I received another shock, for the ugly red splotches were not confined to my face." (79)), but... I didn't care.  I think because the book is so very 1970s (the flared pants, going to Dustin Hoffman movies, etc.), because the emotions underneath the stilted writing feel genuine and right, because Rae's almost-overnight estrangement from everyone she loves adds to the horror of the situation, AND because everyone's refusal to believe -- let alone try to understand -- her is something that I know I identified with when I read it Back in the Day.  Oh, and of course, Julia is super-ultra creepy, so together, somehow, it all works. 

That isn't to say that I didn't groan occasionally.  Or that I didn't find the fact that nobody took issue with Peter immediately developed the Serious Hots for his cousin -- Serious Hots equaling, in this case, talking about marriage -- strange.  Or that I didn't think it was hilarious that the friendly professor who lived down the street just so happened to be an expert on witches and also a believer in the occult.  Or that I didn't think of Poison Ivy once or twice or thrice.

I did all of those things, and more.  But Lois Duncan still works for me.  She still manages to creep me out and she still keeps me entertained.  And sometimes that's all I'm looking for.

Ok, WOW.  I had no idea that there is a movie based on this book.  Directed by Wes Craven and starring Linda Blair, no less!  It looks terrible, in the best possible way.  I'm totally adding that one to the Netflix queue, and bumping it right the hell up.  (Josh is going to be so mad!  BONUS!)

______________________________________________________________________

Book source:  My personal library.  (I have no idea when I bought it.  Or if.  It may have just appeared.  I've started to suspect that my books are secretly reproducing.)

______________________________________________________________________

I read this for the R.I.P. IV challenge.

Philip Pullman may top himself controversy-wise.

Silly me, I didn't know how he could possibly get people more revved up than he did with the His Dark Materials trilogy.

But I was obviously not thinking big enough:  his new book, a re-telling of the life of Jesus that challenges the gospels, will be called The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ. 

But then, maybe since it's a book geared to adults, it won't be controversial.

Maybe.

Oh, who am I kidding?  Philip Pullman can't blow his nose without being controversial.

The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane -- Katherine Howe

Cambridge, Massachusetts: April, 1991.  After successfully passing her qualifying exam, Connie Goodwin plans to spend the summer doing preliminary research for her dissertation.  Those plans go awry when her mother -- a flighty New Age-r, ever self absorbed and Connie's polar opposite -- asks her to spend the summer in the Salem area.  Not for a vacation, oh no.  No, Grace has asked that her daughter drop everything and clean out a house that has stood abandoned for the ten years in which her mother (Connie's grandmother) has been dead. 

Not just a little bit abandoned:  we're talking giant-mushrooms-growing-in-the-hallway abandoned.

Being a bit of a martyr when it comes to her mother as well as at a loss about her dissertation topic, Connie says yes.

Early on in the cleaning, she finds a key in an old Bible.  Within the key is a fragment of parchment that reads:  Deliverance Dane.  That discovery sets Connie on a quest for an as-yet-unstudied primary source about the Salem Witch Trials.  But it isn't just a simple academic search (or as simple as a search like that could be).  More and more often, Connie sees things that no one else seems to see -- glimpses flashes of the past -- and she isn't sure if she's losing her mind or if maybe there's more to the world than her logical historian self is ready to handle.

In The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane, chapters about Connie's present alternate with chapters about Deliverance's, and then, as Connie's search progresses, with Deliverance's descendants.  I found it a compelling read, even resorting to Ye Olde Flashlight Under the Blanket to finish it.

I've seen a few complaints about it.  Some people, expecting straight historical fiction, were disappointed with the fantasy element that was introduced halfway through.  To that, I respond thusly:  There is a blurb on the front cover that says "A gripping supernatural puzzler".  That's about as up-front as you can get without spoilers -- I really don't think there was a bait-and-switch going on. 

I've seen complaints about the amount of description of clothing and furniture in the historical passages -- some people felt that Katherine Howe was shoe-horning her research into her novel.  I didn't get that feeling.  The details felt natural to me, and I felt that the historical passages actually worked better than the chapters about Connie.  It was during Connie's research that I felt the use of the shoehorn.  That was where I started picturing the author instead of the character.  But all of that, I think, is just a matter of taste.

For me, the historical chapters were much stronger than the contemporary ones -- and it was mostly because of the heroine.  Connie falls into one of the more frustrating categories of protagonist:  the supposedly super-smart person who remains clueless hundreds of pages after the reader has figured everything out.  Like, not being sure of who the villain is until he is LITERALLY standing right in front of her, confessing.  Or her inability to make the really obvious leap about Deliverance's line of descent.  It's hard to take someone seriously as having a huge brain when she acts really, really dumb.  I do think that a good part of her blindness was in character -- she ignored her instincts, and gave her gut little merit -- but knowing that didn't make her any less frustrating.

Like other readers, I was bothered by the (I felt) excessive use of dialect in both time periods.  I think much (not all -- in some cases, I really did feel that it was over-the-top) of that feeling is probably also a personal issue -- but it did detract from my enjoyment of the book overall.  And there were some broad generalizations about New Englanders (which, if I'm going to be truthful, were pretty accurate) that chafed.  But that could be chalked up to the uncomfortable feeling most people would get while reading an anthropological description of their own culture.

So.  This was one of those odd reads that I enjoyed more while I was reading than I did upon reflection.  That said, though, if she writes another one, I'll give it a try.

____________________________________________________________________

Book source:  My local library.

____________________________________________________________________

I read this for the R.I.P. IV challenge.

I stayed up too late...

...finishing (flashlight and all!) The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane.  While I had some issues with it, I couldn't put it down.

So I'm hoping to post later.

If not, see you tomorrow.

Assuming I don't get caught up in something else...

But I thought...

...that Edward Cullen DIDN'T like Wuthering Heights.

Why am I even thinking about this?

Prophecy of the Sisters -- Michelle Zink

New York State, 1890.  Lia is aware that she and her twin sister, Alice, have never been particularly close.  But it isn't until after being orphaned by the sudden death of their father that Lia realizes their relationship is actually less complicated than that:  they are enemies.

Because of a centuries-old prophecy, they will stand on opposite sides of a battle for the world itself -- if, that is, Lia is able to figure out what the prophecy of the sisters actually entails, and what part she is supposed to play in it...

From Prophecy of the Sisters:

...I have reasons of my own for wanting to know more.

It cannot be chance alone that Father was found dead on the floor of the Dark Room, or that shortly thereafter I discovered the mark, observed my sister in her eerie ritual, and was given this strange, lost book.  I cannot be sure what it all means or how these events work in concert, but I'm certain they do.

To put it simply, I found this book frustrating. 

To expand on that:  On the one hand, I very much enjoyed the setting -- while the year, 1890, placed us at the tail end of the Victorian Era (like many other paranormal historicals), the author set this one in the United States, which made it feel fresh.  There were some really genuinely classic Gothic creepy moments, a wonderfully thrilling and suspenseful showdown scene at the riverfront, and, while the idea of an Object of Evil Returning Again and Again Despite the Heroine's Attempts to Rid Herself Of It is not a new one, Lia's experiences with the medallion were, I thought, very effective.  And, though Alice didn't get much screen time, on occasion, small details about her behavior gave me the screaming willies:

"Miss Gray would not approve."  Alice's voice greets me as I close the door, but it is not the new, hard Alice I have come to watch with guarded eyes.  Her voice is playful, her figure a dim outline on the stairs.  She sits carelessly on the steps, leaning her body back to rest on her elbows.

It's the image in my mind of this supposedly proper Gilded Age rich girl lolling on the steps -- it seems wrong in every way, and so, to me, suggested that Alice might be losing her humanity.  (It's possible that I read far too much into that passage, but that's where I went with it!)

My frustrations lay in a few places.  While I understand that Lia's search for the truth of her situation and her investigation into the prophecy were both major elements of the plotting and necessitated a decent amount of explanation, I did feel that the characters spent an inordinate amount of time discussing said subjects.  And that that many of the conversations in which Lia and the others try unravel the mysteries often felt unrealistic and like they were supposed to be informing the reader, rather than like they were actually talking to each other.  (Does that make sense?  Basically, I felt like there was a lot of expository dialogue.)

I also felt, maybe because of my problems with the dialogue, that I never got to know the characters, and that I was told things about them, rather than shown:

Sonia rises, holding her fingertips to her brow in frustration.  "Even if we have all the keys, we do not know how to end the prophecy."

I meet Luisa's gaze from across the room.  We are accustomed to Sonia's calm demeanor.  Neither of us knows what to say in the face of her unexpected despair.

I used that passage to illustrate the tell/show issue, because, well, if Lia hadn't told me that Sonia was despairing, there's no way I'd have picked up on it.

There was also a plot point that hinged on an "old Druid text" that happens to be located in the local library's hidden collection on sorcery -- and, totally overlooking the mostly-unknown three-story collection of books on sorcery in a random upper New York State library -- I was always under the impression that the Druids were an oral culture.  But I don't know much about the subject, and I certainly could be wrong.  It just jumped out at me as sounding off.  But hey, maybe I'm the one who's off.

I did feel, right towards the end -- due to the showdown I mentioned, and to the increased number of interactions between Lia and Alice -- more invested in the story.  But then, when I realized that I was going to get no satisfaction -- that this is the first in a series -- I literally shrieked.

So.  While there were certainly some positives, for me, they didn't counteract my frustrations.  I do think that if you're a fan of the Libba Bray's Gemma Doyle trilogy, you should definitely give this one a try at some point -- while I'm all issue-ridden, Prophecy of the Sisters did get a starred review from Booklist and rave reviews all over the blogosphere.

______________________________________________________________________

Book source:  My local library.

______________________________________________________________________

I read this for the R.I.P. IV challenge.

Look For Me By Moonlight -- Mary Downing Hahn

Due to her mother's recent move to Italy, 16-year-old Cynda is on the Maine coast to spend the next six months with her father, her stepmother, and her 5-year-old half-brother Todd.  The family owns the Underhill Inn, an isolated old stone house that the locals say is haunted. 

Cynda's father scoffs at the idea of the supernatural, but she is more inclined to believe.  She settles into the household, though she longs for a closer relationship with her father, is uncomfortable with her young (read: home-wrecker) stepmother and is annoyed by her attention hog of a brother.

Although guests are unusual in January, a guest arrives.  He's about thirty, mysterious, handsomer-than-handsome, a poet, sensitive, charming, and intelligent.  Cynda is drawn to him -- and it seems that he is drawn to her, too.  He is everything her family is not, and it seems that he offers what they do not -- he is attentive to her, he understands her...

But Vincent Morthanos is more than he appears, and while falling under his spell is all too easy, escaping it may be impossible.

I started Look For Me By Moonlight last night and woke up early this morning to finish it -- I got so into it that there was much yelling at the book and to Josh while reading the second half.  (He was drinking coffee in the living room and, I suspect, only half listening.)

Some excerpts (of my yelling, not from the book -- and while I'm trying to avoid major spoilers, some can't be avoided):

Me:  What the hell!?  The father just said there are only two seasons in Maine, 11 months of winter and one month of summer!  God.
Josh:  A lot of people say that!
Me:  But he left out mud season, blackfly season, tourist season...  Then again, he isn't FROM here.  He just moved here, like, ten years ago.  So it's not like he's local.

I got over my Maine issues pretty early on, by the way -- once I realized that it was really only set here so it could be isolated and cold and could just have easily be set in Cornwall or Colorado (minus the coastal thing), I relaxed.  Onward.

Me:  This guy's name is Vincent Morthanos!  If he's Death, I'll give him a pass for the name, but if he's a vampire, that totally means that he chose it for himself, and so he's a complete a-hole!
Josh:  Man, why are you reading this book?
Me:  What do you mean?  It's awesome.

I mean, really.  How ridiculous is that name?  MORT?  THANOS?

Me:  EEEeeeeeeeeew!  Ha ha ha.  I LOVE THIS BOOK!  Totally perfect for showing the utter creepiness of Edward Cullen.  When the centuries-old guy looks thirty instead of seventeen, it's WAY GROSS instead of pretendy romantic.  Yecch!  I love it.
Josh:  ... ... ...
Me:  I mean, it's hilarious that this book is on, like, every Twilight readalike list out there, because it's pretty much the polar opposite.  Oh man, I'm going to make all of the Twihards at the library read it.  Heh heh heh.
Josh:  ... ... ...

So OBVIOUSLY I enjoyed it.  Hugely.  I found Cynda hard to like at times -- selfish, self-absorbed and annoying, but I also felt like she felt like a real person, so that isn't a complaint -- if anything, it was nice to read about a heroine who was far from perfect.  At first I had a hard time with her brother -- during the first half of the book, his dialogue reads like something out of a soap opera -- but due to the second half, I ultimately gave him higher-than-passing marks.  I don't want to give away the reason.  Her father was a jackass, and a bit of a stock character -- self-involved writer, frustrated by his melodramatic teenaged daughter -- but he works.

I think part of the reason the book worked for me so well, oddly, is that Cynda is rather melodramatic and prone to cheesy romantic fantasy:

I always had trouble making friends, especially boyfriends.  I'd been in love dozens of times, but it was always the unrequited kind.  I'd fall for a boy because his eyes were the color of fog or his smile was as warm as candlelight or his laugh reminded me of sleighbells at Christmas.  I'd worship him from across the library or the football field and then watch him fall in love with somebody else--a cheerleader or a gymnast or the star of the class play.

I'm not sure how Hahn made that rather shockingly ridiculous passage work, but she did.  I think it's because Cynda's voice was spot-on -- I believed that Cynda would describe someone like that.  I could easily imagine her writing really, really terrible fan fiction.

Anyway.  I thought it was a hugely entertaining book, and an excellent -- for those who want or need one -- antidote to Twilight.

____________________________________________________________

Book source:  My local library.

____________________________________________________________

I read this for the R.I.P. IV Challenge.

More Twilight Merchandise, or My Eyes, MY EYES!

You know those middle-of-the-night bathroom runs that result in a stand-off with a scary axe-wielding serial killer that turns out to be an innocent coat rack when you finally work up the courage to turn on the light?  Well, the first item might cause some problems along those lines. 

The second item is just glittery wrongness -- especially as the makers suggest putting it in the fridge "for that authentic experience".  Of course, it's also hilarious.  And R-rated*.  So click through at your own risk.

(via Chrissy)

______________________________________________________________________

*Or is it NC-17?  The ratings board seems to make up their own rules.  Have you seen this documentary, by the way?  (This trailer was not approved for all audiences -- not at all safe for work.)

Should I be losing faith in NPR's book coverage?

Because isn't this exactly like that Cathy's Book series?  With the pocket of stuff and the website and phone numbers?

That, in addition to that the fact that I'm 91 pages into The Magicians, which is enjoyable but certainly not exciting or ground-breaking in a way that makes me want to hand out copies on the corner, has me thinking that the answer to my first question is a resounding YES.

Not that I'll stop following it, mind you.

But is glowy magic on the wax or wane? That's what I want -- nay, need -- to know.

Tim Holman has posted a chart of the most-used elements in 2008 Fantasy Cover Art at The Publisher Files.

Too cool.

(via GalleyCat)

So who's read...

...Lev Grossman's The Magicians?

Because it sounds pretty awesome:

On first glance, Lev Grossman's new novel, The Magicians, looks very much like a Harry Potter story, only with slightly older characters, and an American setting. The hero, Quentin, is a teenager from Brooklyn on his way to a Princeton admissions interview when he's whisked through a portal to an Academy of Magic called Brakebills.

But Quentin differs from Harry Potter in that he reads fantasy novels, and he's enchanted to discover that the magic he's longed for all his life actually exists.

Later on in the piece, he talks a bit about literary writing vs. strong storytelling, and it sounds like he realized that you don't necessarily have to give one up to have the other.  Which is nice.  That he realized that writing genre fiction doesn't necessarily have to mean writing crappily.

I almost think I have a galley of it around here somewhere.  I'll have to look.

[Moments later:  YES.  I thought so.  It was in my car.  A patron picked it up for me at BookExpo, and somehow it's never made it into the house.  SWEET.]

More Alice.

Okay, so if you were going to cast Tim Curry in a re-imagining of Alice in Wonderland, you'd cast him as the Mad Hatter, right?

You wouldn't waste all that crazy on a teeny little part like the Dodo*, right?

Not this guy.

Although I'm going to have to watch it -- even though it's a (I shudder as I type this) SyFy** original -- if only for Harry Dean Stanton as the Caterpillar***.

(via Fuse#8)

_______________________________________________________________

*Not that I'm anti-Dodo.  I love dodos.  We should clone them like in the Jasper Fforde books.

**Really.  WHAT were they thinking?  SyFy ≠ cool/hip/futuristic or whatever the crap they were going for.

***Have I posted about this before?  It all seems so familiar...

Free stuff.

The entirety of Scott Westerfeld's Uglies.

And a 40 pages of Kristin Cashore's Fire.

Malice -- Chris Wooding

For ages now, there have been rumors about Malice.  Supposedly, it's a hard-to-find-horror-comic-that-isn't-just-a-horror-comic.  Because, supposedly, if you collect the right ingredients, combine them in just the right order and say just the right words, Tall Jake will come and take you away.

Into Malice.

Supposedly, after kids disappear into Malice, you can read about them in later issues.  For as long as they survive, anyway.

Seth and Kady don't buy it.  They think it's just an urban legend, like the Candyman or Bloody Mary or that one about the haunted VHS tape.  But then one of their friends disappears.  And they discover that Malice is very, very real.

Okay, when I first took this one out of the box, I was concerned.  Because as visually cool as the molded plastic on the front cover was, I knew that it was going to be a pain-and-a-half to shelve.  But then I realized that the molded plastic was just affixed with something rubber cement-ish and was easily removed.  And that the cover art was printed on the book under the plastic thingie.  So I was able to actually concentrate on the book and stop worrying about library deployment.

And the book was fun.  In other hands, I think the switches in format -- from text to comic and back again, as well as some playing with font size and text placement -- could have felt gimmicky and annoying, but because of the storyline and because Chris Wooding can write, it all worked.  There are some genuinely creepy parts, and I felt some actual suspense -- as kids were getting killed right and left, I didn't assume that any of the main characters would make it.  

So, while I didn't think that the writing was as strong as in The Haunting of Alaizabel Cray -- there wasn't much in the way of character development, and though some of the characters were American and some were British, they all sort of sounded the same (and there was that one plot point that I had a hard time buying, unless it pops up in a later installment, so I'll wait and see) -- and while I found that the comic sections actually detracted from the suspense because the pictures were much less scary than what I came up with in my head, it'll definitely be a good pick for the younger YA horror crowd. 

An easy, quick pick for fans of Cirque du Freak et al, as well as fans of Skullduggery Pleasant.

__________________________________________________

Book source: Review copy from the publisher.

You will never, ever guess...

...what book won this year's Hugo for best novel.

Not in a million, zillion years.

The nominees for the 2009 World Fantasy Awards...

...have been announced.

Squeeee!

Kathleen Duey's Sacred Scars pubs today!

I must get myself a copy pronto!

____________________________________

Previously:

Skin Hunger

Where there's a best-selling novel...

...there's bound to be a plagiarism claim.

Here's the letter with the claimant's analysis -- I scanned down through, but I couldn't read it all.  It's just too early in the morning for me to deal with Bella Swan. 

From what I did read, the claim seems pretty weak -- while both authors use some of the same words in similar situations, the word choices seem totally obvious and the passages from both books just read as hideously clichéd.  Somehow I doubt that Stephenie Meyer needed to read Nocturne for the inspiration to give Edward the annoying habit of calling Bella "love" all the time. 

Though I'm somewhat impressed that both authors came up with such terrible names for the vampire spawn:  Renesmee v. Requiem.  Good lord.  They could be American Gladiators.

(via sarahw)

My zombie prediction:

They (you know -- THEY) are going to saturate the market and ruin the fun.

The zombie Beatles?  REALLY?

Tohrment? Vishous? Rhage?

DocTurtle reads J.R. Ward's Dark Lover:

Mostly, though, I wonder where in the hell J.R. Ward learned how to name her characters.  “Tohrment”?  “Vishous”?  “Rhage”?!?  Phlease.  At least now I finally get the running “extra ‘h’s” gag on SBTB.  And for those of you who would like to create your own Black Dagger Brotherhood vampire name, I hope you’ll visit the following website I whipped up this morning: The Black Dagger Brotherhood Name Maker  Because I care.

I am so glad he's reading it so that I don't have to.  Because I suspect that I'll enjoy his recaps much, much more than I would the actual book.

The Secret of the Dread Forest: The Faire Folk Trilogy, #3 -- Gillian Summers

Spoilers from the first two books below!

After getting to know her father while living and working at different Renaissance Faires -- and coming to terms with her legacy as a Tree Shepherd and her life as a half-elf -- Keelie Heartwood is finally in the Dread Forest.  She isn't particularly happy there -- most of the other elves are huge anti-human bigots, it turns out that her romance with Sean is capital-D Doomed, and she doesn't get along with her grandmother.

Keelie's personal life isn't the only problem -- there's some seriously dark magic about and humans are beginning to invade the forest.  And there's an old family secret that may be at the heart of all the conflict.  It's up to Keelie to figure it all out -- and the only friends she has are an obnoxious cat, an extremely high-maintenance princess tree, and her ex-enemy (or is she?) the Queen of All Mean Girls, the elf Elia.

I adored the first book in the series -- I loved the fish-out-of-water-Keelie-dropped-from-LA-life-to-living-at-a-Renaissance-Faire storyline, and I loved that while the storyline itself wasn't at all new, the setting was, and the details about the setting rang true.  The second book, I enjoyed, but it didn't get me super-excited the way that the first book did.

This one... this one didn't really do it for me.  Part of that, I think, is because I loved the Ren Faire setting so much, and this book didn't have that.  Which really surprised me, because part of the reason the second book wasn't as exciting for me was because it felt like a retread of the first.  So I would've thought that a different setting would have been a plus.

But there was more.  I didn't find Keelie as likable as before -- while I appreciated her difficult position, I felt that quite often in this one she acted like, well, a big jerk.  And that maybe expecting a completely different culture to conform to (or even understand) her expectations and beliefs without bothering to acknowledge theirs was a bit selfish and obnoxious.  (But that may partly be a difference in maturity.  Because I am SO MATURE.)

Also, the writing didn't feel as strong -- the author(s) did a lot of telling, rather than showing, and the dialogue, in a lot of cases, felt stilted and unrealistic.  That second issue could be chalked up to Elves and Old Trees speaking more formally than humans, but despite the reasoning behind it, I still felt that a lot of it read like Stereotypical Fantasy Dialogue.  And while I didn't take issue with the environmental message, it felt heavy-handed and pushy.

My last issue is more personal and a big SPOILER.  So skip the next paragraph if you'd like to avoid.  Just know that while it didn't really work for me, I think that for fans of the trilogy, it's definitely worth a try.  But reading the first book as a stand-alone could work, too.  Oh, and obviously, as it's the third book in the trilogy, The Secret of the Dread Forest wraps up this story arc.  But, for series fans, it isn't the end of Keelie & Co. -- there is a second trilogy in the works:  Scions of Shadow.  I don't know if it'll focus on the same subject as my spoiler or on something different.  I'm curious, but I'm still not sure if I'll pick it up or not.

BEGIN SPOILER.  A vampire character was introduced.  And while it certainly could have been planned from the beginning, it was still hard not to wonder -- especially with Keelie's crack about Edward Cullen -- if it was done in an attempt to bring in the Twihards.  Obviously, it may have been totally unrelated, and regardless, maybe it doesn't even matter, but I couldn't help thinking about it, and once something like that starts zipping around in my brain, I get all distractable.  END SPOILER.

__________________________________________________________________________

Previously:

1.  The Tree Shepherd's Daughter
2.  Into the Wildwood

__________________________________________________________________________

Book Source:  Review copy from the publisher.

The difficulties of being Harry Potter.

From UPI.com:

"Oh my lordy Hannah," Potter said. "You have no idea what it is like to have this name. Just 15 minutes ago, I got a phone call from some girls who were about 13 or 14, and who giggled a lot. And you cannot be rude to them, you know that? You cannot be rude.

"That J.K. Rowling owes me something. I'm not sure what, but she owes me."

I never even considered the poor real-life Harry Potters out there.

Oh, NO.  What must happen to the poor real-life Edward Cullens and Jacob Blacks?

 

In honor of New Moon...

...Nordstrom has debuted the ugliest $32 t-shirt of all time:

 

It (and the rest of the line) is likely to sell like gangbusters, though I'd much rather see the Twihards making and wearing their own awesomely insane creations.

Twilight Tattoo Gallery.

DUDE.  Other than wondering if some of these girls are going to have some serious regrets in a few years, I have no words:

 

(via Omnivoracious)

What would Our Jane think?

So, everyone and her mom already knows that Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is being followed up (same publisher, different author) with Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters*, right?

But did you know that there's one called Mr. Darcy, Vampyre due out in a couple of weeks?  (The author says her inspiration was from BtVS -- she says "The dynamics between Buffy and Angel reminded me of the dynamics of Lizzy (Bennet) and Darcy."  Huh.  I guess maybe at first.  But I don't really see it.  And how could Darcy hang out with Bingley all the time if he was a Secret Vampire?  Is Bingley a vampire, too?  What about Lady Catherine?  She would be a good vampire.  DAMNIT.  Now I have to read it.  DAMNIT.)

I guess I shouldn't be surprised -- what with the huge popularity of the paranormal AND anything Austen, we were bound to see multiple mash-ups.  But I can't help but see anything after P&P&Z as just riding the wave, pretending to the throne, or any other applicable cliché.

That doesn't necessarily mean that I won't read them**.

____________________________________________________________________

*Which I have to say, based on title alone, seems to be trying a bit too hard.

**Or at least start reading them.  I have to admit that I lost interest in P&P&Z partway through -- I felt it read mostly like an abridgment of P&P, just with some zombies thrown in.  I'll get back to it at some point, because I don't want to miss Lady Catherine's ninja army.

Graceling. And Fire.

Pretty much everyone who knows me knows that I loved Graceling.

I've been looking forward to reading Fire for ages, and I even have an ARC, but I've been waiting to read it because I know I'll want to blabber about it and I don't want everyone to get all mad at me for talking about a book that isn't available.  SO.  Here's the next best thing:

Graceling won the 2009 Mythopoeic Award for Children's Lit!  Hooray!

Kristin Cashore is going to be at the Harvard Book Store on Tuesday, November 10th at 7pm!  (It's not up at their website yet, but I have it on good authority.  And I will link when it goes up.)

An article about the Harcourt/Penguin collaboration -- I think that they handled a tough situation fabulously.

(Thanks to HBS Steve for the award link, etc.)

Killer Pizza -- Greg Taylor

14-year-old Toby McGill secretly wants to be a world-famous chef, and scoring a job at Killer Pizza is just the first step in what he hopes will be a long and illustrious career.

He may be right.  Except that the career might not be exactly what he expects:  Killer Pizza isn't just a pizza shop.  It's also the front for a secret organization of monster hunters.  And Toby has been hand-picked as a new recruit.

R. L. Stine was the perfect person to blurb this book.  It reads quite a bit like an extended (340 page) Goosebumps novel.  It's plot-driven, with stock characters (Strobe is the Cranky But Goodhearted Tough Guy with a Checkered Past, Annabel is the Rich and Popular Hottie Who Wants More Out Of Life Than Gossiping By The Pool, Toby is the Everyman), and the prose very often reads like a novelization of a movie script*:

And just like that, all was quiet once again in the alley.  Like an afterthought to the horrific attack, a side section of the box that was barely attached to the ravaged structure separated and fell to the ground.  Light from the streetlamp at the end of the alley revealed there was nothing left inside.  Not even a shoe.  Or a shred of clothing.  The guttata had been very thorough.  Or hungry.  (79)

The upside-down Hummer's high beams--still on and pointed at the beast--lent a dramatic, backlit glow to the scene in the middle of the road.  Still dazed from its up-close-and-personal meeting with the Hummer, the creature was nonetheless shaking off the dust and getting ready to resume its battle with the trio.  (300)

I found the dialogue mostly stilted and unbelievable (and Toby's odd tendency to drop his 'g's when he was "relaxin'" was distracting and just... weird), and I felt that there was a lot of telling vs. showing:

Yes, Toby was putting on his apron and taking out the pots and pans.  There was a very particular reason for his kitchen session, beyond just wanting to experiment with a new recipe.  Toby had been surprised and pleased to discover that cooking actually calmed him. (143)

As usual, Feiwel & Friends has produced a very attractive package -- the endpapers look like the inside of a greasy pizza box and the designer made good use of that ridiculously fun classic horror font -- but in this case, for me, that was pretty much all the book had going for it.  While it certainly might appeal to MG fans of R. L. Stine and Darren Shan, the lack of interesting characters and suspense made it a book I had to force myself to finish, rather than one that left me hungry for more**.  The next time I need a Spooky Midwest Fix, I'll re-watch Eerie, Indiana.

___________________________________________________________________

*Which makes sense, as the author is a screenwriter.

**I do want to try the pizza recipe, though.

___________________________________________________________________

Book Source:  Finished copy from the publisher.

The Last Olympian: Percy Jackson & the Olympians, Book Five -- Rick Riordan

THERE ARE NO-NAMES NAMED VAGUE-ISH SPOILERS IN THE FOOTNOTES.

Ever since someone pointed out to me that the similarities between the Percy Jackson books and the Harry Potter books go beyond* the simple boy-turns-eleven-and-discovers-a-secret-family-history-that-results-in-him-going-off-to-a-special-place-every-year-and-also-he's-possibly-the-child-of-prophecy-that-may-or-may-not-save-the-world storyline, I've had a hard time not comparing the two.

So I found it interesting that, like the last Harry Potter book, The Last Olympian began with a divergence.  We didn't get the usual Percy-has-some-sort-of-battle-on-the-last-day-of-school-and-then-makes-his-way-to-camp opening -- Percy gets word that the battle has begun, and that's that.  And, like JKR did with the deaths that occurred at the beginning of HPVII, Rick Riordan showed that he meant business*** with the death of a half-blood** before page thirty. 

This is, after all, the last Percy Jackson book -- the book in which Percy finally hears the whole prophecy, and the book in which the prophecy will finally come to pass.  Or will it?

Overall, I had mixed feelings.  I was happy to get more of Luke's history, to find that Rachel was more important than expected, and to see Percy's mother and stepfather in action.  I was happy to see Grover come into his own, and I always have had a soft spot for Clarisse. 

As the challenges Percy & Co. face are much more serious, I wasn't surprised that the tone was much darker than in the earlier installments, but I was glad to see that there was still a good amount of humor -- Apollo's curse on the Ares cabin was especially good -- and I still enjoy Percy's voice (though I don't really feel that he's matured much in five years):

I remembered the story.  Orpheus wasn't supposed to look behind him when he was leading his wife back to the world, but of course he did.  It was one of those typical "and-so-the-died/the-end" stories that always made us demigods feel warm and fuzzy. 

So that all worked.  But it wasn't until page 295 that the book really grabbed me. 

Until that point, I felt like I was treading water, waiting the story out.  After that point, I was fully invested, interested and eager to see where the story would go.  Because something surprised me there.  Up until then, nothing else in the book had.  And so I finished the book, felt satisfied with the end of the series (HOWEVER.****), and I'm looking forward to the next Camp Half-Blood series. 

________________________________________________________________________

Previously:

1.  The Lightning Thief
2.  The Sea of Monsters
3.  The Titan's Curse
4.  The Battle of the Labyrinth

_________________________________________________________________________

*It's mostly just that the Harry, Ron, Hermione personalities are very similar to the Percy, Grover, Annabeth personalities.  Though Grover's role in everything has changed significantly, and the Percy/Annabeth relationship is different.  In the first couple of books, though, the parallels were quite strong.

**See this post for an interesting take on that death -- but do beware of spoilers.  And this post for a related complaint about the audio version.

***At the same time, I felt that his choice of character was similar to Rowling's choice of Cedric Diggory -- a nice-guy secondary character whose death wouldn't wreck a fan's day, but whose death would hit the other characters -- especially our hero -- hard.  It felt... calculated.  Which detracted, for me -- it made me stop thinking about the characters as people and start paying attention to the man behind the curtain.

****Now, though, looking back, I find that surprise on page 296 less satisfying.  Like the death early on, the identity of the spy felt so calculated -- like the character was chosen specifically so that everything could be wrapped up with a nice big ribbon (and a double funeral) at the end.  It didn't sit right with me.  And the more I think about it, the more dissatisfied I am.

The Thief: The Queen's Thief, #1 -- Megan Whalen Turner

While the rain kept me from writing about The Thief as promised last Thursday, it certainly didn't keep me from re-reading it.  There are few things, I think, that could've made me that miserable.

So.  A bit later than promised, but... here we are.

For the uninitiated, The Thief begins:

I didn't know how long I had been in the king's prison.

After drunkenly bragging in wine shops about being the greatest thief alive, Gen was forced to put his money where his mouth was and prove it.  So prove it he did -- by stealing the king's seal out from under the king's chief advisor's nose.  Of course, Gen's bragging hadn't gone unnoticed by the government, so it wasn't long before he was captured and deposited in prison. 

That same chief advisor -- the magus -- decides that there is a better way for Gen to serve the country than rotting in jail.  And so, the two of them, along with a soldier and two young students, set out on a journey to steal an object.  Gen isn't informed what their destination is, or for that matter, what he is to steal, but, when it comes to the king's prison, out is better than in.

If you haven't read the book, skip the rest, because while I'm not going to get specifically spoiler-y, your first journey with Gen should be one that you only share with him.  So go away and read it.  Seriously.  If you've been meaning to get to it for ages and just haven't found the time -- FIND IT.  You're missing out.  Not just on this book, but on the next two.  And don't worry -- what follows isn't a review or a critique -- it's a love letter.

While I wish I could read this again for the very first time, I do love revisiting it.  I feel like I catch something new every time.  I love Gen's asides, his clues to the reader about his real identity:

He wanted to know my name.

I said, "Gen."  He wasn't interested in the rest.

I love that while he lies constantly to everyone he interacts with in every way possible -- words, posture, habit, personality, history, education, intellect -- he doesn't actually lie to the reader except by way of omission.  I love that basically, he's running a long con.  I love the moments when his temper threatens to get the better of him.  I love him.  I love Sophos, Pol, even the magus.  I can't love Ambiades, but I do love Gen's interactions with him.  I love the underlying conversation about myth: how we use it and change it, how even well-known and often-told stories are shaped by the teller, how that can tell us about the teller.  I love the first meeting of Gen and Attolia.  I love Gen's reaction to being watched over by the gods.  I love watching the characters begin to suspect things about each other even as they begin to care about and respect each other.

I love Megan Whalen Turner for creating these characters and this world.

See Buffy Summers kick poor mopey Edward Cullen in the face.

The Fugs...

...reference BOTH Sweet Valley High and Thursday Next.

Rock on, ladies.

Robert Pattinson hit by taxi while trying to flee insane Twihards.

Stop freaking out, he's fine.

Probably saved by the Power of His Magical, Vertical Hair.

Crazy though, right?  Yipes.

Despite Jess' misgivings*...

I'm going to re-read The Thief.

And I'll be posting about it next Thursday -- so if you feel like re-reading (or reading for the first time!) and chattering about it, feel free to jump in, whether it's in the comments or your own post.

I'm SO looking forward to taking Eugenides home with me.

_____________________________________________________

*See comment #6.

Fathom -- Cherie Priest

Sometime in the 1930s, 18-year-old Nia is invited to take a break from working on her family's orchard and visit her wealthy aunt and cousin in Florida.  Her cousin Bernice is a New York sophisticate, worldly and -- as Nia's disapproving grandmother puts it -- "fast".

She is also, as Nia quickly discovers, extremely angry and totally bananas.  Her rage leads to a life-or-death confrontation between the girls which ends in a wholly unexpected manner:  Arahab, a water witch, takes Bernice beneath the waves -- because she needs human assistance to wake the sleeping Leviathan.

Unbeknownst to Arahab, another being witnessed the showdown -- an earth elemental who is determined to prevent her plan from succeeding.  So while Bernice is exploring her new existence and testing her new powers, Nia is going through a much slower transformation.  Their clash on the beach will not be their last meeting.

While I didn't really connect emotionally with the characters, I loved Fathom.  I loved it for its action-packedness (I read it in one sitting, occasionally having to force myself to go back and read bits more carefully because I kept getting so swept away in my WhatHappensNext excitement).  I loved it for its surprises (there was an excellent OMIGODWHAT moment).  I loved it for its Wicker Man-ish island cult, I loved it for its Battle Between Eternal Forces And How We Little Mortals Are But Pawns storyline, I loved that the elementals came off as what they were (immortal and inhuman) rather than what that type of creature reads like in many other stories (pretty much human, just wiser and more zen). 

I loved it for what I'm starting to think of as specifically Cherie Priest-ish stuff:

Her affectionate mockery of genre clichés (while still putting them to good use):

And all the candle nubs, left scattered in the grass--they weren't regular candles.  They had a greasy texture and a black coating.  Who used black candles?  No one up to any good, that's who.

Her imagery and description, as usual, were both so spot-on that I forgot I was reading and really felt like I was watching the events unfold in person.  And, as with her other books, I loved her use of real-world history and settings -- before Fathom, I never knew about the Gasparilla Pirate Festival or the Bok Tower Gardens, and now I need to visit the latter.  As well as pretty much all of the other National Historic Landmarks.

This was published as an adult novel, but as with Cherie Priest's other work, it has definite crossover potential.  Thumbs up and up and up.

________________________________________________________________

Previously:

Four and Twenty Blackbirds (Eden Moore, #1)
Wings to the Kingdom (Eden Moore, #2)

Dreadful Skin

Another book I need to read.

Because it sounds so cute, even though I've been feeling paranormalled-out.  And the series is called The Parasol Protectorate!  And because judging by her blog, the author is cool.  (Her most recent blog entry is about mourning jewelry -- sometimes it's pretty darned easy to win me over.)

Thank you, Chrissy.

Bless you.  I'm sorry I've been such total crap (or more crap than usual) at emailing recently.

If this image isn't working for you, go here.

Pish Posh -- Ellen Potter

Pish Posh begins:

If you walked into the Pish Posh restaurant on any given night, you would be sure to find a smallish eleven-year-old girl wearing large black sunglasses sitting by herself at a little round table in the back.  She had excellent posture and kept quite still--no fidgeting, no hair twisting, no smiling--while she watched the glittery and fabulous customers come and go.  Because her glasses were so large and so black, you could not tell whom she was looking at, which made the glittery, fabulous customers at the Pish Posh restaurant very, very nervous.

Eleven-year-old Clara Frankofile makes the glittery, fabulous customers nervous because she is able to spot, unerringly, people who have gone from being Somebodies to being Nobodies.  And Nobodies are not welcome at Pish Posh.

When she identifies Dr. Piff as a Nobody, his reaction leaves her feeling... unsettled.  Rather than slinking away, never to be seen (at least by Anybody Who Is Somebody) again, Dr. Piff sits down at Clara's private table.  And, before he leaves the restaurant forever, he mentions that there is something "peculiar and mysterious" going on at Pish Posh.  Something that Clara doesn't know about.  Which should be impossible.

But, as she soon discovers, it isn't.  There is something distinctly odd about Pish Posh's soup cook, but the investigation hits a dead end.  That forces her to do something she's never done before:  work with someone else.  And that someone else just so happens to be her own age -- and a jewel thief, to boot. 

I know I've said this before, but I really don't understand how or why Ellen Potter isn't more well-known.  Her books -- and I've now read all of them (so far) -- have a timeless quality that I'd think would appeal to Dahl and Snicket fans, as well as readers of older classics like Ruth Sawyer's Roller Skates.  Her books are set in the real world, but they have a fairy tale feel.

Pish Posh was no exception -- Clara, especially at first, is a bit of a horror:  pompous and snobby, an aged socialite in a young body.  But the more I learned about her, the more her behavior made sense, and, it wasn't long before her existence -- opulent private apartment, indoor roller coaster and all -- just seemed sad.

The mystery component of the story, while interesting and complicated (especially given the just-over-150-pages-length of the book), was very definitely secondary to Clara's personal journey.  This is a book about a girl figuring out what Life Is About.  And what she wants her life to be about.  Some readers have expressed distaste about the dark, violent part of the Pish Posh mystery, but that storyline, I felt, worked in favor of the classic feel -- think back to Roller Skates, for example (if you haven't read it, read it) -- and some have complained that there's too much going on in such a short book to allow for much depth, but the whole thing really worked for me.  I felt for Clara.  And I couldn't help liking her and rooting for her, even when she was being awful.

_________________________________________________________________

Previously:

Slob
Under the Radar Recommendation:  The Olivia Kidney books
2. Olivia Kidney and the Exit Academy
3. Olivia Kidney and the Secret Beneath the City

The New Moon trailer.

I see that the filmmakers decided to forgo the werewolf/clothing problem: 

Movie Trailers - Movies Blog

Wow.  Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson still have zero chemistry.  His makeup is still way over the top and he always looks constipated.  (Which, to be fair to RPattz, is a fair reading of the character.)

But I must say that little Taylor Lautner, sans wig, is quite... attractive.