February 16, 2012

Book Review: There Goes The Galaxy by Jenn Thorson

I believe I was a freshman in college when I first read the late Douglas Adams’ wildly popular comic space opera The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy.    I remembered being more than just a little bit blown away by the laugh out loud funny universe that  hero Arthur Dent found himself prowling after the earth was destroyed to make way for a hyperspace bypass.   While Adams went on to write a six volume Hitchhiker’s trilogy  (and yes,  I know that’s three books too many, but hey,  I wasn’t Adams’ publisher,) which sadly became just a little less funny in the later volumes,  when reading Jenn Thorson’s new novel There Goes The Galaxy I felt as though transported back to my early love affair with funny science fiction.

Bertram Ludlow is a psychology graduate student in Pittsburgh when he is abducted by Rolliam Tsmorlood,  of the planet Hyphiz Delta who has been commissioned to deliver Bertram to the Seers of Rhobux.   Rollie has been told that his criminal archive,  detailing a variety of charges all across the Greater Communicating Universe, will be blanked once he delivers Ludlow,  freeing him to continue his life as a freelance, swashbuckling member of the Underworld.    In a story that is also reminiscent of Robert A. Heinlein’s  The Cat Who Walked Through Walls,  things of course do not go according to plan and Bertram finds himself a GCU fugitive,  on the run with Rollie,  stopping in places such as the desert party planet Vos Laegos,  and later setting out to use public transit and tackle the GCU on his own.

I’ve known Jenn Thorson for several years now,  following first her blog Thrift Shop Romantic and later her most excellent humor blog Of Cabbages And Kings.     It was on that last that I read her short story The Hyphiz Deltan Job which is actually a prequel to There Goes The Galaxy,  introducing readers to Tsmorlood and Thorson’s marvelously imagined universe.      I am quite certain that this volume will appeal greatly to fans of Adams and Heinlein as well as to any readers who enjoy comic science fiction at its very, very best.      I urge you to take twenty minutes and go ahead and read The Hyphiz Deltan Job.   And if you find yourself laughing still laughing out loud half an hour from now,  do buy the book.   You’ll be cracking up for weeks.

There Goes The Galaxy– Very Highly Recommended.    Buy now $15.99

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January 26, 2012

Book Review: Well With My Soul by Gregory G. Allen

I first received Gregory G. Allen’s novel Well With My Soul as part of a blog book tour and was supposed to have reviewed this title back in November I believe.    I definitely can’t say I regret my decision to stop participating in blog book tours where I was expected to commit to a post date before even seeing the book for the first time.     I read widely and only for pleasure and it just didn’t suit me to have to force myself to work through some title I just was not in the mood for to meet a certain post date.   But I have to say,  I’m really pleased that I had the opportunity to read Well With My Soul.

Jacob and Noah are brothers who grow up in a small town in Tennessee.  The older Jacob realizes from a very early age that he is gay.  Jacob is also very much his mother’s favorite while younger Noah adopts something of a bad boy persona and is often drinking and staying out until all hours.   But as soon as he comes of age,  Jacob and his boy friend move to New York City and Noah is left to oversee their mother– whom he never did quite learn to talk to–in her cruel passage from cancer.   While Noah at first seems to be the not so bright bad boy, he evolves into a successful novelist who at length also moves to New York City where he and Jacob have a genuinely shocking second act.

Some years ago I remember seeing a movie at a friend’s home.   I don’t remember what it was called nor the actors’ names.   The film opens on a black man receiving some kind of award at a business dinner,  goes on to his going home with his beautiful wife.   And they walk in the door of their gorgeous house and he tells her  ”Pack bitch,  I’m dumping you.”    I was so Shocked by this scene that my hosts had to turn the movie off.   The revelation that Jacob decides to become a professional preacher,  of some never defined vaguely Protestant sect,  renounces homosexuality and marries a woman and has two kids by her was for me an utterly jarring sort of plot twist.     I’ve read dozens of novels where a young gay protagonist goes off to the big city for a coming of age story.    I’ve never before read a well-written novel about two brothers struggling with sexuality from such opposite ends who wind up in such very different places than where they began.

I’m  just the slightest bit hesitant to wholeheartedly recommend Well With My Soul– the mid-book plot twist really  bothered me a great deal.  But I was by that point hooked in the story and continued reading to the very end to see how it turned out.   I will not reveal the final plot twist,  as I don’t in any way want to discourage anyone from reading it if they think they might like it.  But I do have to say that while believable the ending was a cliche.   Well With My Soul– Cautiously Recommended to those who enjoy well written psychological fiction.

Buy Now $13.99  from Amazon

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January 19, 2012

Book Review: Crunch Time by Diane Mott Davidson

I have to admit that over the years I have become a true fan of Diane Mott Davidson’s series of mystery novels featuring caterer Goldy Bear Schulz who lives with her police homicide investigator husband in Aspen Meadow, Colorado just outside of Denver.     Now that I no longer work at the library, nor spend quite so much time and energy on book reviewing,  I actually noticed Crunch Time while browsing the stacks.  (Those who read my reviews of previous Goldy novels may remember that I used to put myself on the waiting list for these in advance.)   Luckily PCLS  despite being under horrible pressure from the downturn seems to continue to do a fantastic job of giving patrons what they want,  and so I was most pleased to happen upon this volume.

I also have to admit that I brought it right home and moved it to the very top of my reading list.   I can’t honestly say that I read it cover to cover at a sitting,  although it did hold my interest and I don’t believe that I read any other books until I had finished.     It did seem to me that there were rather more than the usual number of characters and suspects this time out,  and it does appear that Ms. Davidson  (whose books I greatly enjoy,  even though I have a strong suspicion that if we ever met I wouldn’t actually Like her,  as a friend) took rather more pages than she usually does to tie up the case.    It also seemed as though there was an absolute catastrophe at absolutely every single social event that Goldy attended,  whether as the caterer or as a guest.    I fear that Ms. Davidson may be beginning to lose the golden touch she has heretofore displayed in this series.

Which brings me to….I am certain that fans of the series will be fully satisfied with this latest heaping helping of their beloved Goldy.   And I also must admit that to a great degree I would be one of those fans who was actually pleased that the novel was a bit longer than the usual,  more of the great story to savor.   And yet I would not be much of a book reviewer if I did not note the somewhat frightening cloud that this not quite yet over the top novel casts over Davidson and her beloved series.   Crunch Time definitely did not “jump the shark”.   But I fear it appears to me that Ms. Davidson has at the very least begun  ”water-skiing in the bay”   (Or perhaps given her Colorado location and theme,  snowboarding down a Rocky at a perilous speed.)

Crunch Time– Recommended,  especially to Davidson fans

Buy Now $ 16.42 from Amazon

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January 12, 2012

Do You REALLY Need a Guidebook To Play Farmville?

OR  Book Review:  Farmville For Dummies by Angela Morales and Kyle Orland

I have previously written of my distaste for books that call their readers “dummies”  or “complete idiots”  right there in the title.  Though in the past I have noted that sometimes the books themselves are well-written and contain helpful and useful information.    While I might be tempted,  having perused Farmville For Dummies to hurl those hurtful terms at authors Angela Morales and Kyle Orland,  I suspect it would be more correct to believe that the folks at Wiley Publishing are convinced there is a market out there of folks who will actually buy a guide book to tell them how to play a simple web game that is known far and wide for being oh so easy to play.

I have to confess,   I have played Farmville.    Fairly early on in my Facebook experience I clicked a link and wandered into the game one day,  and did in fact devote some time to planting virtual crops and coming back later to harvest them.   I did erect barns and storage cellars and add various decorations to my farm.    I kind of enjoyed it when a cousin I’d not heard from in years added me as a friend on Facebook and began dropping by my  ”farm”  from time to time.    After  a while however,  I grew a bit bored with the game and (as usually eventually happens with me and every game)  I drifted away and stopped playing.

But never once in all of the time that I played Farmville,  which seemed to me as obvious and intuitive a software program as ever I have interfaced with,  did I have so much as a single question about ‘how does this work?’  or  ’what am I supposed to do now?’.   I certainly don’t doubt that the folks at Wiley believe this volume will be another hit.  But if it is I will take it as a sure sign that we have at length reached focawki.

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December 29, 2011

Book Review: Beauty Queens by Libba Bray

Shhh.   I’ll tell you a secret.   I had actually read a book about surviving foreclosure that I had planned to review today.    Being able to add to my existing section of books related to home ownership appealed to me as did being able to include tags like “surviving foreclosure” that would no doubt bring in search visitors over time.    But honestly?   I just don’t have the stomach to write about about a crisis that shows no signs of abating.   And the fact is that Libba Bray is one of the most original and funny writers out there today.

Those who read my review of Going Bovine may remember my raving about the highly imaginative plot and laugh out loud funny writing.    And in Beauty Queens,  Bray very much delivers more of the same.    The story begins with a plane crash.  The fifty Miss Teen Dream contestants are on a chartered flight to a Caribbean resort for a scheduled week of rehearsals and the pageant.     When the plane crashes on what appears to be a deserted island,   many of the young women are killed but the handful of survivors pick themselves up, dust themselves off and manage both to survive and to continue their rehearsals and plans for the big pageant,  which they are sure will go on just as soon as they get rescued.

While it might seem from that brief description that Beauty Queens would compare to Lord of the Flies or Gilligan’s Island,  I actually found it reminiscent of Max Barry’s  Jennifer Goverment,  the hilarious dystopian fantasy about a future world run completely by and for the corporations.   Not that Beauty Queens is dystopian exactly,  but The Corporation (which sponsors both the Miss Teen Dream pageant and, fictitiously,  the novel reminded me very much of Barry’s zany world.   That the girls manage to procure food and create shelters on the island is impressive,  but their dealings with some of The Corporation’s most secretive employees,  who are working on a plan to sell weapons to an incredibly rich dictator (the weapons disguised in empty cans for Lady Stache Off dipilatory) and are based on the seemingly deserted island provide much mayhem,  as does the discovery of a trans-sexual contestant among their mist and the arrival of a yacht full of handsome (but highly incompetent) men.

If you enjoy reading Young Adult fiction and like to laugh,  Libba Bray’s Beauty Queens is Very Highly Recommended.

Buy Now $12.56   from Amazon

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December 19, 2011

Book Review: Paintings From The Cave by Gary Paulsen

I’ve been reading YA lately and was absolutely thrilled with this book I picked up at the library.  Paintings From The Cave is a collection of three novellas by Gary Paulsen.   Each story revolves around a different  ”child who slipped through the cracks”.     In an introductory note,  Paulsen explains that he himself was just such a child who through circumstances finds himself with poor or worse parental supervision and is forced to confront the harder realities of life at a very early age.      Twice in the first person and once in the third,  Paulsen spins wonderfully vivid tales of three very different childhoods.

Jake, who is usually just called J in the high rise apartment building where he officially lives with his aunt and survives a world run by the local drug dealer through stealth and smarts has a fascinating and far reaching encounter with an unlikely neighbor who wants him to pose for a painted portrait.   JoJo’s substance abusing parents,  by turn neglectful and abusive have made her wary.   But her unlikely very first friendship with a girl who is dying of a terrible disease is a beautiful flower in her gray life.  Jaime and his older brother Erik are teenagers on their own;  after running a way from a violently abusive father they survive by couch surfing as Erik struggles to work three jobs and Jaime to stay in school.

The three separate stories allow Paulsen to show a wonderful range,  and the stories ring true in each of three distinct voices.  Paintings From The Cave is Very Highly Recommended to anyone who enjoys Young Adult fiction.

Buy Now only $11.67 from Amazon

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November 3, 2011

Book Review: Hiss Of Death by Rita Mae Brown

I fear that I really have given up on Rita Mae Brown ever writing any more of her wonderful non-genre novels.   But I will say that Brown’s latest Mrs. Murphy mystery continues the story of Mary Minor “Harry” Harristeen, the former postmistress in Crozet, Virginia who in this installment battles with breast cancer.   As always in these mysteries there are lots of new characters introduced in the early pages,  and in this instance both the killer and the victims are amongst the new characters.   Of the long standing characters,  Harry’s husband, Pharamond “Fair” Haristeen DVM and best friend Susan Tucker, and deputy Cynthia Cooper all are central to this volume,  though other familiar characters like Mrs. Hobendogger do not appear this time.

As always, Ms. Brown churns out a first rate formulaic mystery with her usual skill and aplomb.   Those who enjoy Ms. Brown’s msytery novels will assuredly enjoy Hiss Of Death in which Harry has a lump on her breast, which tests positive for cancer.   Harry is treated with surgery and chemo therapy and then joins a rather hard core suburban gym to exercise and get back in shape afterwards.   She stumbles upon a number of murder victims whom it turns out are involved in a scam that involves manufacturing and delivering human growth hormone.   I did enjoy Hiss Of Death, as I most always enjoy Ms. Brown’s mysteries.

But.   It is disappointing that a writer with Ms. Brown’s well displayed over abundance of talent continues to simply churn out a couple of mystery novels each year to pay the bills,  rather than write more of the more literary fiction.   Ms. Brown’s non-genre fiction is so far and away superior to her scholck mysteries that I just can’t help but feel frustrated  by the continuing torrent of mysteries in her two series at the expense of creating more of the good stuff.

Hiss Of Death–  Recommended

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October 19, 2011

30 Day Book Challenge: Day 4– A Book That Makes You Cry

This post is part of Jake Kern’s 30 Day Book Challenge.

Today’s challenge is “a book that makes you cry”.    While honestly,  it is not that uncommon for me to get emotionally wrapped up in a work of fiction,  and I have in fact cried all to frequently in the course of my readings,   but one writer who consistently draws tears, as well as almost every other emotional response I am capable of is Pat Conroy.     For me,  Conroy is a  truly wonderful novelist,  whose praise I can not begin to sing loudly enough.   And Conroy’s most recent novel South of Broad features Conroy at his best in a gripping, emotional novel that is as deep as the ocean and as broad as all humanity.   If you haven’t already read South of Broad,   you really, really should.

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October 18, 2011

Book Review: Iglu by Jacob Sackin

Most serious observers agree that we have already begun to see the effects of climate change and global warming.   Author Jacob Sackin projects a hundred or more years in the future and envisions a world in which much of the population of the continental United States is being relocated to Alaska where an entirely mercenary private army controlled by the US President fights against Alaska natives and attempts to oversee massive construction projects for the enormous relocation.

Iglu is not exactly science fiction,  and does not fit neatly into the future history sub-genre.   It’s not exactly a fable or fairy tale either,  although the story of  April,  an Inupiaq teen ager who finds herself journeying alone across a very strange and different Alaska (from the one we know today) in some ways encompasses all of these genres,  while being a fairly short and highly readable tale.    The people that April meets are at once archetypes of the remaining groups of people in this post-apocalyptic Alsaka and at the same time well drawn characters who bring alive this very strange setting.

There is an extensive timeline included in an appendix which makes clear the larger historical events leading up to and following April’s particular story.    April’s story is actually much smaller of course than the framework of mass migration following climate change,  but Sackin skillfully intersperses fictitious news reports and transcripts from government meetings that place April’s story within the larger context.    I found the concepts fascinating and greatly enjoyed Iglu.    If you’re a fan of any of the genres mentioned (science fiction, future history, fanatasy, fables) I would definitely Recommend you give Iglu a try.

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September 28, 2011

30 Day Book Challenge: Day 3–Book that makes you laugh out loud

ROFLMAOPIMPWTIME.  It’s the most expansive acronym in my tool box to indicate that one is Really laughing his ass off because something is Really funny. I have only actually used this acronym in one book review,  for  Lisa Patton’s Whistling Dixie In A Nor’Easter.   Patton’s novel about Leelee Saterfield, a proper Memphis belle who finds herself uprooted and transported to frozen Vermont where she is thrust into the role of running a complex business in a distinctly hostile environment is one of the most laugh out loud funny books I’ve ever read.    Patton is masterful in her portrayal of Leelee as well as the peculiarities of Vermont.     Whistling Dixie is a wonderful tale that in the end is quite uplifting as well as funny.    You can read my review here.

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