The Book Pirate

Blurb for the back cover:

“Intriguing, funny and sometimes a little sad.”

I finished reading Rosie Little’s Cautionary Tales for Girls while riding the bus. It was a bittersweet achievement. Sweet because I had just finished a book that I greatly enjoyed. Bitter because I was on the bus now with nothing to do.

You are probably thinking, “Why are you reading a book that says it is for girls in the title?” Let me address that. While girls will probably get the most out of this book, the book itself can be read by any gender. You may also be thinking “Who is this Rosie Little?” Rosie Little is the creation of Danielle Wood. She is the book’s protagonist who through the losses her own innocence tells us of her experience growing up and hopes to instill us with valuable life lessons ranging from her thoughts on loosing your virginity to warning us of the dangers of overseas travel. The style in which these cautionary tales for told to us reminded me very much of the style Daniel Handler of Lemony Snicket fame. Although now that I see the two names on the same page, I am not wholly convinced that they are different people. Danielle, Daniel. It also doesn’t help that the hardbound version of this book is roughly the same as the Series of Unfortunate Events books. I’ll have to investigate their possible connection further. Anyway, as I was saying, most of the stories focus on Rosie but occasionally focus on somebody Rosie knew. The second story in the book tells the horrifying tale of what happens when somebody gave Rosie’s cousin a small figurine of an elephant. Then she got another and another and before she knew what was happening, her whole life is surrounded by them. She didn’t even like elephants in the first place. Mayhaps if she had told the truth to her friends and family, which is the lesson Rosie wants us to learn, then Rosie’s cousin wouldn’t have found herself in the hilariously awkward situation involving two naked men and a birthday party.

Danielle Wood has created the perfect book that found a special spot in my heart that I normally reserve for short-story collections. These tales are intriguing, funny and sometimes a little sad.

You can pick up the book at Powells or Amazon, heck any bookstore works.

I was a little caught off guard last night when all the blogs I read wouldn’t stop talking about The Liar’s Diary. Having not heard of this book I had no clue what was causing all the hype. I concluded that Dan Brown released a new book without me knowing. Clever bastard. As it turns out Mr. Brown is not to blame. Patry Francis is! In fact, today is National Blog About Patry Francis Day! Her debut novel The Liar’s Diary hits the market in paperback form today. Everybody whose blogged about her has nothing but nice things to say. The reason for all of this hoopla is a sad one. As her book was set to debut in hardcover she was diagnosed with cancer. A whole bunch of writers then got together and said, “Hey, let’s help her out by doing what we can to make her paperback edition a success.”* Which is why everybody is blogging about her today. I just found out about her yesterday so I am not really the person to ask about the specifics. The best place to get to know her is on her blog and be sure to check out her book as well. I picked up my copy earlier today.

*I was not at this planning party. I am just assuming that is how this idea came along.

Blurb for the back cover:

“Glad that I was forced to read it.”

Do you remember back in high school when you had assigned reading? It was never something I like. The idea of being forced to read a book not because I was interested in it but because the teacher like the book personally seemed like a horrible reason to read a book. My young developing mind shunned all things English class related and instead focused on Math. To this day I can not stand Brave New World but I could help you with your Trigonometry homework if you needed it.

Luckily in college I changed my ways and shunned Math and returned to English which is how I found myself in a class (Philosophy in Literature) where I assigned to read The Photograph by Penelope Lively.

Originally published in 2003, this is the first book I have read for school where the author is still alive. The story revolves around a photograph found in an envelope labeled “DON’T OPEN – DESTROY” that shows Glyn’s former wife Kath holding hands with another man which sets in motion a chain reaction which causes the people who knew Kath to change the way they knew her. The husband goes on an obsessive quest to find out all he can about his wife who he never paid attention while causing her sister Elaine to also reevaluate her. The overall theme of the book is how everything a person knows about another can change in an instant.

I enjoyed this book. It’s not something that I am going to hand to friends and say “You must read this” and if I were in a bookstore just walking around aimlessly like I normally do I probably would have not given it a second glance. The cover is not something particularly eye catching and the title does not draw me in. But the story itself is a compelling one which makes me wonder how many books I am missing out on by judging books by their cover. It’s a short read being only 240 pages long. Perfect for an airline flight or a rainy Saturday. Overall, I am glad that I was forced to read it.

You can find Penelope Lively’s website here and order her book here.

Here’s a recap of what I have spotted people reading in public places:

At Ease With The Dead by Walter Satterthwait
A Joshua Croft Mystery it seems. Joshua Croft is hired to find some missing bones of a Navijo indian leader that vanished many years ago. Joshua Croft looks to be a long running character in Satterthwait’s books.

The Expected One by Kathleen McGowan
Remember when The Da Vinci Code came out and shortly afterwards it seemed like everybody was writing about Jesus and his connection to Mary Magdalene? This is one of those books. A religious thriller which has its tale told through characters recounting their stories. Basically, The Da Vinci Code without any action? It should be noted that this book was first self-published, which I think is admirable, and that the author, Kathleen McGowan, believes that she is a descendant of Jesus of Nazareth and Mary Magdalene, which I think is a little kooky.

Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk
You may have seen the movie this is based off of. It has something of a cult following which is fitting because Palahniuk has the same type of following, especially in the Portland, Oregon area. His website is even named The Writer’s Cult. I have not read the book but having seen the movie I would compare it to Daniel Handler’s The Basic Eight but instead replace the high school seniors with masculine guys and a reason for Brad Pitt to be shirtless. Haunted would be my favorite Palahniuk book so far.

Seduced By Madness: The True Story of the Susan Polk Murder Case by Carol Pogash
Ah, true crime novels. Unless these are written by the killer herself/himself I see these as extended tabloid news which why I guess these tend to sell. Susan Polk was on trial in 2002 for the murder of her husband who she married in 1981. Did she do it? You could either read the book or Wikipedia it to find out I guess.

The Dress Lodger by Sheri Holman
An historical-fiction tale about a prostitute who helps a tarnished doctor by providing him with dead bodies for him to research. Seems like a thriller. Out of all the books I saw people reading this week, this would be the one I would pick up and read if given the choice.

Fellow Pirate Paulo Coelho has had a revelation. It seems that when he puts his book on the internet for people to download digitally, his sales go up. Further suggesting that pirating stuff off the internet does not harm the artists.

I’ve read a handful of his books and I personally think he is a very great author. I would take advantage of his good nature and download Veronica Decides To Die from his web site The Pirate Coelho. Other books by him that I would recommend are The Alchemist and The Devil and Miss Prym.

As I sure you are aware by now that Mr. Al Gore won the Nobel Prize last year for inventing Global Warming, telling us about it, and explaining how we are all screwed because of it. Naturally the mainstream media ignored everyone else who won a Nobel this past year and focused solely on those who made a movie. It was just a few days ago I discovered that they give out a Nobel for Literature. Curious to see if Dan Brown was been awarded this prize yet, I began to look in to Nobel winning authors. Naturally, I have not read any of the winning authors. I blame lack of time, not ignorance, on this one.

I bring all this up because the winner of the 2007 Nobel Prize in Literature was Doris Lessing.

At the age of 88 she is the oldest winning of the prize in literature. She is the 11^th woman to win the prize. Out of 106 awards, only 11 are women. I’m sure more could be said about that but let’s instead look at Lessing some more.

She was born back in the day in 1919 with American and British nationality after her father, a World War I Capitan, met her mother after he had his leg cut off. She spent her childhood moving around from country to country before settling in Zimbabwe and started writing while working as a nursemaid. Here’s an interesting fact, she was a member of a communist book club which it seems is -sorta- still active today.

Her works can basically be divided in to three themes: Communist themes, psychological themes, and science fiction. Read that sentence again because I said science fiction. Seriously, we’re talking other planets and whatnot. Her science fiction stories were made more as commentaries of social-cultural issues and focused on humans rather than, you know, aliens that are green.

During the 80’s she also published two books under the pseudonym Jane Somers to show how hard it is for new authors to get a break in the publishing world. Lessing is still writing books. In 2007 The Cleft was published. She’s been writing for over 57 years. That’s very admirable to stick with something for so long.

While I have not read any of her works, she seems like a very interesting author and I will be sure to check her out next time I find myself in the bookstore. I’ll probably start with her science fiction works.