The novel tells the story of a family on vacation, (well, technically, they’re “on holiday” since they are British) when a mysterious woman shows up in their lives and has a profound effect on each member of the family: a teenage son and daughter, a mom and the stepfather. The audio employs different readers to tell the story of each of the characters.

When it was either the son or the daughter’s turn in the spotlight I found myself interested in the story, but when it was either of the adult characters I found myself more likely to zone out. At least in this novel, the young people were more interesting.

I read a lot of young adult fiction because I enjoy it, and perhaps because I find the characters more interesting than some grown-up characters. What are your thoughts on young characters vs. old characters in books? What, to you, makes a character interesting and a story compelling?

Over the past week or so the audio version of Zeitoun by Dave Eggers kept me company on my travels. This non-fiction book tells the story of Abdulrahman Zeitoun, a resident of New Orleans who chose to stay in the city during Hurricane Katrina to look after his home and business. Six days after the storm hits he suddenly disappears and his wife, who has evacuated the city desperately works to piece together what happened. It’s a gripping and disturbing story, which I highly recommend.

At the same time that I was listening to Zeitoun I was reading a short story anthology. At first glance a non-fiction book and a science fiction anthology, might seem to have very little in common, but Wastelands edited by John Joseph Adams collects a 22 outstanding post-apocalyptic tales, and there was something about these survivors living in these wildly altered and often hostile landscapes that reminded me very much of Zeitoun’s own real life story.

It’s a truly impressive anthology. Sometimes themed anthologies can be a bit iffy, but Wastelands doesn’t really have any duds. The stories in this collection range from good to great. If you like science fiction or short stories in general, you’ll definitely want to read this one.

I’ve been doing more writing than reading this week, and only managed to get through one “real” book and one audio book. I finished the awesome Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde and listened to the moving Story of a Girl by Sara Zarr.

Shades of Grey

I’ll be honest, although I like the premise behind Jasper Fforde’s Thursday Next series, I had a hard time getting into those books, but when I read the premise behind Shades of Grey, I knew I had to give Fforde another try, and I am so glad I did. The novel is set in a dystopian future where everyone is obsessed with color and society is organized into a rigid hierarchy based upon one color’s reception. Our narrator Eddie Russett has strong red perception, but thanks to a bit of trouble he caused back home he’s been sent out to the sticks with the assignment to complete a chair census. He finds that the village of East Carmine is filled with dark secrets and curious characters, and gets himself mixed up in things a bit over his head. Really no description of this book can quite do it justice. A wonderfully original premise, colorful (sorry, I couldn’t resist!) characters and the sort of humor one would find in a Douglas Adams book makes this book a must read. The good news is that it is the first book in a planned trilogy. The bad news is I have to wait for the other two books to come out.

Story of a Girl

With audiobooks, a book’s reader can make or break a book. I appreciated the fact that Sara Zarr herself was the reader for Story of a Girl. It made this book about a teenage girl coming to terms with an event that occurred a few years ago, and which has come to define her both in her family and at school, all the more powerful. If you enjoy good young adult realistic fiction, this is one definitely worth checking out.

What’s next

Thanks to some library reserves coming in for me, my reading plans changed a bit this week. Right now I am reading the nonfiction book Booklife by Jeff VanderMeer, and am already by the wealth of information it contains for writers promoting themselves and their work in these modern times, and I’m only on chapter 2. Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick also came in for me at the library this week. So, I’ll probably read that next, and then hopefully read Handcuffs by Bethany Griffin.

This week I finished up a mystery novel Bad Things Happen by Harry Dolan; read a graphic novel, Squirrel Mother by Megan Kelso; finished listening to the audio of An Abundance of Katherines by John Green and read a modern allegory Carmen Dog by Carol Emshwiller.

Bad Things Happen

I can’t remember where I first read a review for this debut novel by Harry Dolan, but wherever it was I remember thinking that the book sounded good, and I added it to by to-read list. I’m glad I did. Main character David Loogan has a mysterious past, who in a roundabout way ends up working for the small mystery magazine Gray Streets. Soon though, things are happening around Loogan, that makes him think he has stumbled into a real live Gray Streets story, as first one then another person associated with the magazine gets murdered. As the body count mounts it’s hard to put down this mystery novel, as each chapter seems to end in a new cliffhanger and the mystery behind who the murderer is and who David Loogan really is continues to deepen.

Squirrel Mother

This short graphic novel by Megan Kelso is a series of short graphic short stories, some on the usual themes of growing up as well as less conventional things like the Alexander Hamilton. Kelso’s stories rely mainly on her own engaging artwork to move things along, words are only there to help flesh out the stories a bit. It’s a quick “read” that can easily be completed in one sitting.

An Abundance of Katherines

I am now convinced that John Green is a bona fide master of writing about the teenage boy. Once again he takes the story of a socially awkward, somewhat nerdy teenage boy dealing with life and girls and turns it into an engaging poignant tale. His characters always feel like real people to me, people I would love to have as my own friends and maybe that’s what makes his novels so enjoyable. Colin’s a former child prodigy trying to come to terms with the fact that he is now nothing but an adult of above average intelligence as well as trying to deal with the fact that the nineteenth girlfriend he had named Katherine has dumped him. He goes on a road trip and winds up in Gutshot, Tennessee, and in that unlikely place makes some discoveries about his own life.

Carmen Dog

This novel by Carol Emshwiller is hard to classify. Unexpectedly all the women of the world start turning into animals while at the same time female animals start turning into women. The story mainly follows Pooch the family pet as she becomes a woman, dreams of singing in the opera and finds herself in one bad situation after another. It’s an allegorical tale that has the feel of something that would be read in a feminist studies course in college. The concept could be played for laughs, but the story is mainly a serious one despite the absurdity of the premise.

What’s Next?

Right now I am reading Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde and listening to Story of a Girl by Sara Zarr. I’m hoping to read Handcuffs by Bethany Griffin.

This week I read the awesome Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl. I also read The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation by Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colon. At the moment I’m reading the very hard to put down Bad Things Happen by Harry Dolan and An Abundance of Katherines by John Green.

Beautiful Creatures

This YA novel by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl is described as Southern Gothic. Take everything you love about To Kill a Mockingbird stick the characters in a modern high school, then throw in some dark supernatural elements and you get a pretty good feel for Beautiful Creatures. It’s one of those books you just want to curl up on the couch with and lose yourself in its pages for a couple of hours. This book was recommended by several people, and I was not disappointed. If you haven’t yet done so, you need to read this book.

The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation

I remember when the original 9/11 Report came out being curious, but not curious enough to wade through the dense 600 and some pages of that book. Thankfully Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colon came up with the brilliant idea of creating a much abridged graphic novel style adaptation of the report that presents all the essential points of the original report in a very accessible format. It’s still weighty stuff, and full of depressing information, not just the sad terrorist attacks that happened more than 8 years ago now, but the fact that it’s very likely our government hasn’t really learned from the mistakes that allowed the 9/11 attacks to occur. A report card at the end of the book asks the 9/11 commission to judge the country in how well they have followed through with the suggestions made by the commission, and it is pretty bleak.

What’s next

I’m nearly done with both of the books I am currently reading. After that it’s on to Story of a Girl by Sara Zarr and Squirrel Mother by Megan Kelso.

What about you? What books have been keeping you company this week?

The other day I stopped in a Wal-Mart that opened back in the fall. While, any experience to Wal-Mart can be disturbing, mine was especially so because for a moment there I thought I heard a feed going inside my own head as some woman started telling me about the wonders of a new foamy hand soap that would keep me and my family safe from scary germs. It took me a moment to realize that this was a talking video advertisement located near a display of the foamy soap. As I walked through the store, I noticed there were more of these video ads scattered throughout the store. It was a weird experience.

I suppose a brain implanted feed can’t be too far away. I think I’ll pass on having one installed.

This week I finished up the awesome and hilarious graphic novel Tales Designed to Thrizzle: Voume 1 by Michael Kupperman, read the hard-to-put-down YA novel The Dark Divine by Bree Despain and listened to the audio version of  Mary Pearson’s YA novel The Adoration of Jenna Fox.

Tales Designed to Thrizzle: Volume 1

Graphic novel isn’t really the right term for this work by Michael Kupperman, as novel implies that there is one overarching story. This is not the case, instead this is a brilliant collection of a bunch of humorous short comics. Most are one or two pages at most. It’s in full color and many of the comics blend retro style comics with a healthy amount of weirdness to produce wonderful gems. Interspersed throughout are extremely funny fake advertisements. If you like your funny stuff on the quirky side, this is definitely worth checking out.

The Dark Divine

Bree Despain’s debut novel is a classic YA paranormal romance. From the first page I was sucked into the story even though at first, I wasn’t so sure about the seemingly perfect main character. Grace is a minister’s daughter who gave the impression of being  a little too goody-two-shoes, but she soon proved to be a wonderfully well-rounded girl, and it was hard to put down this book as I tried to find out what was going to happen to Grace and her tortured boyfriend, Daniel.

The Adoration of Jenna Fox

This young adult science fiction novel by Mary Pearson is set in a not too distant future, where medical technology has made some tremendous leaps forward. From the start we know that something is not quite right with Jenna, and we soon figure out what is going on, long before she actually works out what happened. Jenna is forced to come to terms with her own identity. The story raises some interesting questions about how far medical technology should go and what it means to be human.

What’s Next . . .

Right now I am reading the memoir This is Me, Jack Vance by Jack Vance and listening to the audio version of Feed by M. T. Anderson. I have plans to dive into Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl next, as well as Superfreakonomics by D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner.

What are you reading this week?

This was a two book week for me. I listened to Paper Towns by John Green on audio and read Makers by Cory Doctorow.

Paper Towns

Paper Towns is a great YA novel, with all the elements that make for a good teen read. There’s silly pranks, a mystery and even a zany race against time road trip. It’s realistic fiction, and the sort of realistic fiction that actually feels real. The characters are multi-dimensional and fight off those usual high school stereotypes. Our main character is Quentin a high school senior on the verge of graduation, who spends a lot of time in the band room, even though he isn’t even a member of the band. His next door neighbor and childhood friend is the ultra-popular Margo Roth Spiegelman, but when Margo disappears and Quentin takes it upon himself to track her down, he starts finding out that he doesn’t know Margo as well as he thought he did. John Green has a knack for writing about and for teens, and his novels manage to be both fun and thought-provoking.

Makers

Cory Doctorow is a science fiction author who occasionally writes for the YA end of the spectrum. His latest book, Makers, is clearly an adult novel. There are a lot of characters in this near-future science fiction book, but I think the main character here may be the technology itself. The biggest difference between the world of the novel, and our own is the existence of 3-D printers. Rather than paper these printers are fed with “goop” and what they turn out is various three dimensional objects. What this means is that production becomes much more of a small scale sort of thing. The novel follows this technology and the different players involved in using it as they try to understand the business logistics of it from the geeky engineers who just want to make stuff to the Disney executives who just want to make big bucks. It’s an interesting look at a very possible future.

What’s Next

Right now I just began the funny, out there graphic novel Tales Designed to Thrizzle Volume 1 by Michael Kupperman and am listening to the audio version of the YA novel The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary Pearson. I’m not sure what I’ll be diving into next, I bought a few YA novels with an Amazon gift certificate I had, and I’ll probably have to do an eenie meenie miney moe to figure out which one I read next.

I’m cheating this week. I was on the road last Monday, and didn’t get around to participating in the group blog. So, today’s post is actually what I’ve been reading over the past two weeks. I read both of my Christmas gift books The Devil’s Eye by Jack McDevitt and The Man Who Loved Books Too Much by Allison Hoover Bartlett. I also listened to the audio version of Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld, read The Wordy Shipmates by Sarah Vowell and an all ages sort of picture book by Jon Muth called Stonecutter. My quick reviews on each of these books are listed below.

The Devil’s Eye

Jack McDevitt writes the sort of science fiction novels that are perfect for escaping into, especially during the dead of winter. The Devil’s Eye is part of the series chronicling the adventures of far future antiquities dealer Alex Benedict and narrated by his loyal assistant and pilot Chase Kolpath. These novels combine mystery and space-faring science fiction and remind me a little bit of Sherlock Holmes with spaceships, though Chase is far cooler and prettier than Watson. At the start of The Devil’s Eye, the pair are contacted by a bestselling horror writer with a cryptic message and zip off across the galaxy to try and solve the mystery. Although Alex and Chase figure out what’s going on well before the conclusion of the novel, they then find themselves in a race against time to try and avert certain disaster. The Devil’s Eye like everything I’ve ever read by Jack McDevitt is a wonderfully entertaining novel.

The Man Who Loved Books Too Much: The True Story of a Thief, a Detective and a World of Literary Obsession

It will probably come as no surprise that I love books, and I have a soft spot in my heart for books about bibliophilia and book collecting. I do make a small amount of extra money dealing in used books and find the used book world to be a strange and fascinating place. In The Man Who Loved Books Too Much Allison Hoover Bartlett takes readers into that world, as she introduces them to a small time criminal obsessed with expensive books who lacks the means to acquire his books through legal means. Bartlett tells the story of John Gilkey the thief who stole thousands of books from used book dealers mostly by using stolen credit card numbers. He’s an interesting character, and the glimpse into the collectible book world is fascinating. It’s a must read book for anyone who loves books not only for the stories they contain, but also as wonderful physical objects.

Leviathan

Scott Westerfeld’s Leviathan is a big change from his previous Uglies series. The novel is a steampunk tale set at the beginning of World War I in which the British travel the skies in huge living gas ships made of fabricated animals. Our two main characters are Deryn Sharp a girl posing as a boy aboard one of those British air ships and Prince Aleksander of Austria who is a devotee of Clanker culture and prefers to get around in huge machine walkers. The paths of our two characters cross and they become connected in an unlikely alliance. This is a quick-paced story with lots of action, and if I had one complaint it’s that it ends too soon. It is obviously part of a planned series, but the ending leaves far too many loose threads, and I will likely have to wait nearly a year before the next book in the series is published.

The Wordy Shipmates

Sarah Vowell has a gift for writing about history in an engaging laugh out loud style. Proof of that is that she is able to make even the dull drab Puritans she chronicles in The Wordy Shipmates entertaining and amusing. The book tackles not that first wave of Puritans that arrived on the Mayflower and that American school kids traditionally study right before Thanksgiving, but the next wave that came over on the Arabella and included the very wordy John Winthrop. Vowell describes the early years of the Massachusetts Bay Colony as well as Rhode Island and how the events of those Colonial years helped to shape the present day United States, which bears little resemblance to those early settlements. The sort of history that Vowell writes bears little resemblance to your boring high school history textbook. Vowell breathes new life into these musty old historical figures with her unique view of things and her sarcastic wit.

Stonecutter

I’m familiar with the works of Jon Muth from having read his picture books Zen Shorts and Zen Ties, books that kids will enjoy that also have a positive message. I found Stonecutter shelved in the children’s nonfiction section at my local library. Physically it resembles a small hardcover “chapter book” but inside it looks more like a picture book, with simple black and white illustrations each accompanied with one or two lines of text. The simple fable-like tale, however, is probably more geared towards adults than kids. It’s a beautiful and thought-provoking book that can be appreciated by all ages.

What’s next?

Right now, I am reading Makers by Cory Doctorow and listening on audio to Paper Towns by John Green. I’m not sure what’s on tap after I finish those.

What have you been reading?

I was side-lined by a flu at the end of last week, and as a result didn’t get quite as much reading in as I had hoped. I know that being camped out on the couch would seem to be an ideal time to get some reading in, but I find when I’m like this my brain feels too mushy for reading.

The Hunger Games

I did finally finish listening to The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins on audiobook. Much to my surprise, I am not the last person on earth to read this book, though I am sure I must be close. The Hunger Games reminded me a lot of the Uglies series by Scott Westerfeld. Both are YA novels set in a dystopian future with people living in two very different worlds, in both cases one of those worlds is populated with vacuous pretty types and both books have hovercrafts. The Hunger Games also has a fight to the death reality television show. Think Survivor with far higher stakes. The second book in the series, Catching Fire, came out a couple of months ago.

The Ghost’s Child

I didn’t know what to expect with The Ghost’s Child by Sonya Hartnett. Billed as a modern fable, my library placed the audiobook in the young adult section. To me this very short book with fantasy elements, seemed like more of an all ages thing, and since the main plot point concerned a failed marriage and an elderly woman still coming to grips with the loss of her one true love, I think teenagers might not really be the target audience. It was an interesting tale in a magic realism vein that reminded me a bit of works by Haruki Murakami.

Stuck Rubber Baby

I was able to make it through one actual book with pages (as opposed to audiobooks) but this one did have lots of pictures too. Stuck Rubber Baby is a graphic novel by Howard Cruse that tells the story of a young man coming to grips with his own sexual identity set against the backdrop of the Civil Rights Movement in the American South. In an afterward Cruse writes that it took him 4 years to complete Stuck Rubber Baby, and I am not surprised. The story is dense and complex, the artwork is detailed and this may be one of the wordiest graphic novels I have ever read. It’s a great book, and I highly recommend it to any adults looking for a graphic novel with some meat on its bones.

What I’m currently reading

I’m about halfway through an exciting science fiction novel, The January Dancer by Michael Flynn and planning on soon starting the audiobook of The Last Summer (of You and Me) an adult novel by YA author Ann Brashares.

That’s all I’ve got. What’s on your plate on this fine Monday?