Summer Reading
May 21, 2012
What's on the iPod: The Birthday Massacre|Sideways
What's on the Nightstand: The Weird Sisters|Eleanor Brown (halfway thru!)
Save the Words Word of the Day: Macellarious (adj) Pertaining to butchers
So now that I've shaken off this funk I let myself be thrown into by HERO, I want to share the gorging and book binging I've been indulging in lately.
Books I saw last year that I thought, oh hey, that sounds neat. Or, sadly, I was bespelled by the book cover, story be damned (in this rare case, it turned out to be a blessing). And one that was offered under the guise of: "it's good! You know, it's by the guy who wrote Fight Club!" (It is so not my style)
But there were some that left me--for lack of a better word--moved. And some that were just for fun. Of course.
I don't read non-fiction. I read non-fiction once, and that was during my research into serial killers and true crime for a college project. This is why I don't read non-fiction. The truth--and reality--I feel, is more disturbing than fiction. But, when the story about Jaycee Dugard broke that she'd been found, now a mother of two, held captive by her kidnappers nearly 20 years later, it intrigued me. How so many people judged her, like they did Elizabeth Smart for not escaping and running to safety. Like, duh! How difficult is it to understand that? It is so easy for people to say what they'd do when they've never actually been in that situation, let alone as a scared pre-teen, to know exactly how they'd behave or react to such a thing. The Dugard case is considered "local" to me, having been a frequent visitor to her home town of Tahoe (I got married there, even!) to where she was finally discovered (an area less than 50 miles from me), it was riveting that such a story that usually ends in tragedy had a happy one. Well, happy is relative I'm sure. Ms. Dugard is forever changed, her life, as her book is aptly titled, was stolen. She has some making up to do. The system owes her an apology, which is why I felt like I needed to buy her book. Show support? When the system and the people failed her? They let a monster out to commit such horrors that forever changed the course of many people's lives.
The book itself is what is probably a watered down account of a very terrifying life this girl led in captivity (which I am very grateful it was indeed. I didn't want to hear the details). At the end I wondered if writing this book was cathardic for her. But it does illuminate the mind of a young girl completely taken out of her element and essential kept as a slave to the Garridos warped minds. It also shows how desperately she screamed in silence for help in crowds hoping people would recognize her, and how when, no help came--even when probation officers arrived and didn't investigate the fact that children were in the house with a convicted rapist and pedophile?!, she resigned to coping--in any way she could. No one can blame her, no one can say they'd do anything different because they weren't in that situation, they didn't live her life before or during, and certainly can no one know what she's going through after. I read it once, and shared with someone else. I won't read it again, it's not that kind of story, but it helps you understand how quickly everything can change.
I picked up Little Bee in an airport when I had a 9 hour layover. I read the entire book in those 9 hours. It is so well told in an intriguing voice and in such a way you're plopped into the middle of two very different worlds after Something Terrible has happened--you just don't know what--but when you find out, it is one of those Holy Mind Fracking moments that you are left with nothing but chills for the character and utter respect for the author to be able to tell such a story--and with two very different points of view.
One, a privileged magazine owner with a special needs son, the other an underprivileged girl in a war torn area of some third world country who has witnessed unspeakable horrors against her people in the name of greed. Their two lives intersect in one of those cruel moments of fate and no one is the same after. The story takes place in that After as those privileged try to pick up the pieces of their lives, but are forever haunted by it (and bear the physical reminders of that horrible day) and that underprivileged girl, in a voice so innocent but wise beyond her years, tries to make a life of her own, by finding them. When you save a life, you become responsible for it... and it is a story that makes you think and feel long after you're done reading it.
As a kid I grew up on Indiana Jones. That series and that character so cleverly portrayed by Harrison Ford (my first crush evar, hello, Han Solo!) is what piqued my interest at a young age in ancient history and lost civilizations. I don't even care that the last two installments weren't...up to expectations. A few years ago I discovered an author (who is actually local to my area too) named James Rollins and his magnificent Indiana Jonesesque Sigma series. One summer beach vacation I found in a dusty second hand bookstore in a small coastal town the two books that I was missing in my collection and 2 others I had meant to pick up but hadn't gotten around to. I devoured all four of those books in a week, completing the series. Now I wait every summer for the newest installment. I love Rollins' work because of his three-spoke philosophy in writing. History, science, religion (or ancient civilization) and how when all of those meet in a clandestine way - the Sigma force must step in and correct the wrong, often illuminating ancient mysteries or creating new ones. What I also love about Rollins is that he's not afraid of banging up his main characters or putting them through hell. There is collateral damage in high risk position like special forces--especially when the world's evil subcultures want to claim world power by all means necessary, and it creates a depth to the characters. There is always lots of action, new technology (and often real and often very scary), and lots of riddles to make the thinking person think.
The Devil Colony doesn't disappoint and delivers on that three-spoke formula as well as lay the ground work for some very interesting partnerships I'm curious about learning about in the novels yet to come. I have heard that Rollins has sold the rights to the story for a movie franchise, which also has me intrigued. I hope they do it's grandeur justice.
The Devil Colony points out some interesting questions about America's modern history with Thomas Jefferson, the ruse behind the Lewis and Clarke expedition, the Mormon religion and disappearance of some Native American tribes, and a Masonic-esque secret society that proves to be alive and well today as a shadowy government influence with members called The Echelon--a true enemy now of Sigma force. In all these twists and layers of espionage it is one of those stories where you just don't know what's going to happen, but you really want to hold on fast so you don't fall off into an abyss along the way.
It is no secret to those who know me I am firm believer in the Zombie Apocalypse. Okay, maybe Zombie Apocalypse is a littler liberal. Usually it stands for whatever pandemic we leave ourselves open to in our complacent materialistically ignorance mongering society, but it sure is fun entertainment. With the Doomsayer's 2012 bearing down on us quickly, I read up on things like the Prepper Movement and of course, my latest television passion is the Walking Dead (for a comic nerd this is gasmic). So of course this will bleed over into my current literary choices.
The Forest of Hands and Teeth, sadly is one of these books I just can't get into. Firstly, it was told to me incorrectly. I thought this was something scary. I found it under Young Adult Paranormal Romance. The hell? I didn't even know there was such a genre. There is. A big one. I remember when I was researching statistics of readership versus genre, romances made up 30 some-odd percent (the largest chunk) and everything else was a smattering of small teens to single digits. Those single digit genres are strangely the ones I write for. This was also discouraging.
I have gotten into the first chapter and now it is still collecting dust. It is rare I don't finish books. But it is being tossed into the pile that is being occupied by a Lisa Gardner novel and that pesky Oryx and Crake. And a Pahlaniuk, but we'll get to that.
I was looking for, I don't know, SOMETHING to binge on since I gave up Laurell K Hamilton and Kim Harrison as I was sorely disappointed in the direction the series' were going. I got sucked into the covers of the Autumn series by David Moody.
A slow and quiet reveal, this story unleashes an unforgiving horror without ever mentioning the Z word. Well done. Also well done was realizing don't get stuck in England during a zombie apocalypse. You will be without weapons and without preparation to a viral outbreak. But what I find intriguing about this story is the people's beliefs. You have those who are defined by trying to overcome and those who are define by trying to hide--and by any means necessary try to ignore what is going on around them.
There is no real feeling of danger though with this series as you don't see in the first 2 books a clash between the undead and the living where you see if there are any consequences to contact. Other than one of the characters being overcome by a mob of the putrefying, the reader and the survivors don't know what came of him after they left him behind. There is something almost childishly innocent in the way it is written and the blind optimism in the face of a dead world without knowing what caused billions of people to perish in a matter of seconds that I find cloying. I am not sure how much time is spanning between the novels (4 total) but in the first 2 it seems like a matter of weeks? But the way it is being written it seems longer.
It seems a bit disorganized or perhaps not deep enough to keep a reader like me engaged, but there are some poignant well written tragic moments that bring the human element into a world that is now destroyed rather than just following some plucky survivors--which there is a bit of Lorelai Gilmore to it than I prefer to their idea of existence/survival.
That cannot be said about Maberry's Dead of Night. I read this book in a matter of days. It was scary, gory, scientifically intriguing and horrifying in it's reveal of the outbreak that I am plannign on picking up more of his novels. The way Maberry painted the characters and the scenes of Ground Zero, not to mention the realization of "we're fucked" moments that gave me chills or had me in suspense.
It's fast paced not just in the writing but in the evolution of the plot. A Cold War Era prison doctor experiments on a condemned serial killer a serum that will keep his conscious awake while he feels his body rotting around him--a torture until there is nothing left of him. Only he doesn't go into a pine box for the Unclaimed. Instead he's shipped back to his aunt's hometown (Ground Zero) where he awakens and unleashes what will be the undoing of humanity despite the efforts of the National Guard and every attempt to keep the infection contained. There are reluctant heroes and antiheroes in this but heroes nontheless and the reader doesn't know if their favorite is going to make it or not--I like those kinds of risks in a story.
So yeah, Palahniuk's book that is in my Can't Finish pile. It's Haunted. Which I like how Palahniuk writes, kinda in a gritty voice, raw kinda like you're listening to a buddy tell you a wicked tale in a seedy little bar and you shouldn't be there. It's a collection of 23 shorts based on what is supposed to be a writer's camp with the short stories being the submission of those who are attending this mysterious writer's camp. Fight Clubesque in that it's a secret club (and you don't talk about it and you don't tell your family you're doing it, you just leave them a note and all your worldly possessions behind and GO WRITE hard core like and NO identities! Don't tell anyone your name! So everyone goes by ridiculous monikers). Anyway, that first short is about masturbation. No big deal. But it's the hazards of extreme masturbation that the story's about--and the terrible things people do to themselves to get off. Really? I could totally figure this out in an episode of Jackass. I can't read any further, sorry. Literary-lly it's well written. It's also a bit formulaic. Edgy because Palahniuk will go where no one goes with that abstract mind of his, and I can respect him for that. It's the content I don't care for.
As you've seen in this blog's rhetoric, I'm currently reading The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown. I am not a fan of chick lit (which is what I categorized everything that wasn't horror, romance or thriller), but after reading Little Bee (not chick lit but literary) I gave it a try. I am glad I have. As soon as I'm done (hopefully in the week!) I'll have a review for that too.
What's on the Nightstand: The Weird Sisters|Eleanor Brown (halfway thru!)
Save the Words Word of the Day: Macellarious (adj) Pertaining to butchers
So now that I've shaken off this funk I let myself be thrown into by HERO, I want to share the gorging and book binging I've been indulging in lately.
Books I saw last year that I thought, oh hey, that sounds neat. Or, sadly, I was bespelled by the book cover, story be damned (in this rare case, it turned out to be a blessing). And one that was offered under the guise of: "it's good! You know, it's by the guy who wrote Fight Club!" (It is so not my style)
But there were some that left me--for lack of a better word--moved. And some that were just for fun. Of course.
I don't read non-fiction. I read non-fiction once, and that was during my research into serial killers and true crime for a college project. This is why I don't read non-fiction. The truth--and reality--I feel, is more disturbing than fiction. But, when the story about Jaycee Dugard broke that she'd been found, now a mother of two, held captive by her kidnappers nearly 20 years later, it intrigued me. How so many people judged her, like they did Elizabeth Smart for not escaping and running to safety. Like, duh! How difficult is it to understand that? It is so easy for people to say what they'd do when they've never actually been in that situation, let alone as a scared pre-teen, to know exactly how they'd behave or react to such a thing. The Dugard case is considered "local" to me, having been a frequent visitor to her home town of Tahoe (I got married there, even!) to where she was finally discovered (an area less than 50 miles from me), it was riveting that such a story that usually ends in tragedy had a happy one. Well, happy is relative I'm sure. Ms. Dugard is forever changed, her life, as her book is aptly titled, was stolen. She has some making up to do. The system owes her an apology, which is why I felt like I needed to buy her book. Show support? When the system and the people failed her? They let a monster out to commit such horrors that forever changed the course of many people's lives. The book itself is what is probably a watered down account of a very terrifying life this girl led in captivity (which I am very grateful it was indeed. I didn't want to hear the details). At the end I wondered if writing this book was cathardic for her. But it does illuminate the mind of a young girl completely taken out of her element and essential kept as a slave to the Garridos warped minds. It also shows how desperately she screamed in silence for help in crowds hoping people would recognize her, and how when, no help came--even when probation officers arrived and didn't investigate the fact that children were in the house with a convicted rapist and pedophile?!, she resigned to coping--in any way she could. No one can blame her, no one can say they'd do anything different because they weren't in that situation, they didn't live her life before or during, and certainly can no one know what she's going through after. I read it once, and shared with someone else. I won't read it again, it's not that kind of story, but it helps you understand how quickly everything can change.
I picked up Little Bee in an airport when I had a 9 hour layover. I read the entire book in those 9 hours. It is so well told in an intriguing voice and in such a way you're plopped into the middle of two very different worlds after Something Terrible has happened--you just don't know what--but when you find out, it is one of those Holy Mind Fracking moments that you are left with nothing but chills for the character and utter respect for the author to be able to tell such a story--and with two very different points of view.One, a privileged magazine owner with a special needs son, the other an underprivileged girl in a war torn area of some third world country who has witnessed unspeakable horrors against her people in the name of greed. Their two lives intersect in one of those cruel moments of fate and no one is the same after. The story takes place in that After as those privileged try to pick up the pieces of their lives, but are forever haunted by it (and bear the physical reminders of that horrible day) and that underprivileged girl, in a voice so innocent but wise beyond her years, tries to make a life of her own, by finding them. When you save a life, you become responsible for it... and it is a story that makes you think and feel long after you're done reading it.
As a kid I grew up on Indiana Jones. That series and that character so cleverly portrayed by Harrison Ford (my first crush evar, hello, Han Solo!) is what piqued my interest at a young age in ancient history and lost civilizations. I don't even care that the last two installments weren't...up to expectations. A few years ago I discovered an author (who is actually local to my area too) named James Rollins and his magnificent Indiana Jonesesque Sigma series. One summer beach vacation I found in a dusty second hand bookstore in a small coastal town the two books that I was missing in my collection and 2 others I had meant to pick up but hadn't gotten around to. I devoured all four of those books in a week, completing the series. Now I wait every summer for the newest installment. I love Rollins' work because of his three-spoke philosophy in writing. History, science, religion (or ancient civilization) and how when all of those meet in a clandestine way - the Sigma force must step in and correct the wrong, often illuminating ancient mysteries or creating new ones. What I also love about Rollins is that he's not afraid of banging up his main characters or putting them through hell. There is collateral damage in high risk position like special forces--especially when the world's evil subcultures want to claim world power by all means necessary, and it creates a depth to the characters. There is always lots of action, new technology (and often real and often very scary), and lots of riddles to make the thinking person think. The Devil Colony doesn't disappoint and delivers on that three-spoke formula as well as lay the ground work for some very interesting partnerships I'm curious about learning about in the novels yet to come. I have heard that Rollins has sold the rights to the story for a movie franchise, which also has me intrigued. I hope they do it's grandeur justice.
The Devil Colony points out some interesting questions about America's modern history with Thomas Jefferson, the ruse behind the Lewis and Clarke expedition, the Mormon religion and disappearance of some Native American tribes, and a Masonic-esque secret society that proves to be alive and well today as a shadowy government influence with members called The Echelon--a true enemy now of Sigma force. In all these twists and layers of espionage it is one of those stories where you just don't know what's going to happen, but you really want to hold on fast so you don't fall off into an abyss along the way.
It is no secret to those who know me I am firm believer in the Zombie Apocalypse. Okay, maybe Zombie Apocalypse is a littler liberal. Usually it stands for whatever pandemic we leave ourselves open to in our complacent materialistically ignorance mongering society, but it sure is fun entertainment. With the Doomsayer's 2012 bearing down on us quickly, I read up on things like the Prepper Movement and of course, my latest television passion is the Walking Dead (for a comic nerd this is gasmic). So of course this will bleed over into my current literary choices.
The Forest of Hands and Teeth, sadly is one of these books I just can't get into. Firstly, it was told to me incorrectly. I thought this was something scary. I found it under Young Adult Paranormal Romance. The hell? I didn't even know there was such a genre. There is. A big one. I remember when I was researching statistics of readership versus genre, romances made up 30 some-odd percent (the largest chunk) and everything else was a smattering of small teens to single digits. Those single digit genres are strangely the ones I write for. This was also discouraging. I have gotten into the first chapter and now it is still collecting dust. It is rare I don't finish books. But it is being tossed into the pile that is being occupied by a Lisa Gardner novel and that pesky Oryx and Crake. And a Pahlaniuk, but we'll get to that.
I was looking for, I don't know, SOMETHING to binge on since I gave up Laurell K Hamilton and Kim Harrison as I was sorely disappointed in the direction the series' were going. I got sucked into the covers of the Autumn series by David Moody.
A slow and quiet reveal, this story unleashes an unforgiving horror without ever mentioning the Z word. Well done. Also well done was realizing don't get stuck in England during a zombie apocalypse. You will be without weapons and without preparation to a viral outbreak. But what I find intriguing about this story is the people's beliefs. You have those who are defined by trying to overcome and those who are define by trying to hide--and by any means necessary try to ignore what is going on around them. There is no real feeling of danger though with this series as you don't see in the first 2 books a clash between the undead and the living where you see if there are any consequences to contact. Other than one of the characters being overcome by a mob of the putrefying, the reader and the survivors don't know what came of him after they left him behind. There is something almost childishly innocent in the way it is written and the blind optimism in the face of a dead world without knowing what caused billions of people to perish in a matter of seconds that I find cloying. I am not sure how much time is spanning between the novels (4 total) but in the first 2 it seems like a matter of weeks? But the way it is being written it seems longer.
It seems a bit disorganized or perhaps not deep enough to keep a reader like me engaged, but there are some poignant well written tragic moments that bring the human element into a world that is now destroyed rather than just following some plucky survivors--which there is a bit of Lorelai Gilmore to it than I prefer to their idea of existence/survival.
That cannot be said about Maberry's Dead of Night. I read this book in a matter of days. It was scary, gory, scientifically intriguing and horrifying in it's reveal of the outbreak that I am plannign on picking up more of his novels. The way Maberry painted the characters and the scenes of Ground Zero, not to mention the realization of "we're fucked" moments that gave me chills or had me in suspense. It's fast paced not just in the writing but in the evolution of the plot. A Cold War Era prison doctor experiments on a condemned serial killer a serum that will keep his conscious awake while he feels his body rotting around him--a torture until there is nothing left of him. Only he doesn't go into a pine box for the Unclaimed. Instead he's shipped back to his aunt's hometown (Ground Zero) where he awakens and unleashes what will be the undoing of humanity despite the efforts of the National Guard and every attempt to keep the infection contained. There are reluctant heroes and antiheroes in this but heroes nontheless and the reader doesn't know if their favorite is going to make it or not--I like those kinds of risks in a story.
So yeah, Palahniuk's book that is in my Can't Finish pile. It's Haunted. Which I like how Palahniuk writes, kinda in a gritty voice, raw kinda like you're listening to a buddy tell you a wicked tale in a seedy little bar and you shouldn't be there. It's a collection of 23 shorts based on what is supposed to be a writer's camp with the short stories being the submission of those who are attending this mysterious writer's camp. Fight Clubesque in that it's a secret club (and you don't talk about it and you don't tell your family you're doing it, you just leave them a note and all your worldly possessions behind and GO WRITE hard core like and NO identities! Don't tell anyone your name! So everyone goes by ridiculous monikers). Anyway, that first short is about masturbation. No big deal. But it's the hazards of extreme masturbation that the story's about--and the terrible things people do to themselves to get off. Really? I could totally figure this out in an episode of Jackass. I can't read any further, sorry. Literary-lly it's well written. It's also a bit formulaic. Edgy because Palahniuk will go where no one goes with that abstract mind of his, and I can respect him for that. It's the content I don't care for. As you've seen in this blog's rhetoric, I'm currently reading The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown. I am not a fan of chick lit (which is what I categorized everything that wasn't horror, romance or thriller), but after reading Little Bee (not chick lit but literary) I gave it a try. I am glad I have. As soon as I'm done (hopefully in the week!) I'll have a review for that too.
Posted by MV Merchant. Posted In : Reviews
