My Top Five Favorite Books

Number Two
I Am Not Myself These Days
by Josh Kilmer-Purcell

This book happens to be my most frequently purchased book. I’m either buying a copy to give to people or buying myself another copy because I lent it out to a friend and they “lost” it. By now Amazon keeps warning my that i’ve purchased this book in the past multiply times and is suggesting I get better friends to save me some money.

What is the book about?
An alcoholic drag queen with fish for breasts falls in love with a drug addicted male escort.

Why is it in my top five?
It’s a tragic love story akin to a shakespearian tragedy. Not only that, it’s funny. This book is one that I can pick up, open to a random page, and start reading and still be entertained. It’s a memoir. Did I forget to mention that? Josh is a very humorous writer. He has two other books out as well but the one you should also be looking in to is The Bucolic Plague about him and his partner buying a goat farm which lead to to their reality TV show, The Fabulous Beekman Boys.

Top 5 Favorite Books:
5) sex.lies.murder.fame. by Lolita Files
4) Einstein’s Dreams by Alan Lightman
3) Apathy and Other Small Victories by Paul Neilan
2) I Am Not Myself These Days by Josh Kilmer-Purcell
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Booking Through Thursday asks: What’s the oddest thing you’ve ever read? (You know, something NOT a book, magazine, short story, poem or article.)

Okay, so one time I was bored and was playing around on Craigslist and I came across this under Rants and Raves (or something, I forget). In it, this guy has written personal notes to ALL of his ex-girlfriends telling them how he felt, what they did wrong, what he did wrong, etc. There was probably something around 20 different girls. I can’t remember what the point of it was, but I remember finding it pretty funny. I printed it out too thinking that I might be able to use something from it for a story. It’s still around here, somewhere.

My Top Five Favorite Books

Number Three
Apathy and Other Small Victories
by Paul Neilan

I love the title of this book. Look at the cover. Who wouldn’t immediately pick up this book and read the first couple of pages? The opening sentence is “I was stealing saltshakers again.” Needless to say I was captivated. Why was he stealing saltshakers? I needed to know. I’ve read this book a couple of times but not recently.

What is the book about?
The only thing Shane cares about is leaving. Usually on a Greyhound bus, right before his life falls apart again. Just like he planned. But this time it’s complicated: there’s a sadistic corporate climber who thinks she’s his girlfriend, a rent-subsidized affair with his landlord’s wife, and the bizarrely appealing deaf assistant to Shane’s cosmically unstable dentist. When one of the women is murdered, and Shane is the only suspect who doesn’t care enough to act like he didn’t do it, the question becomes just how he’ll clear the good name he never had and doesn’t particularly want: his own.

Why is it in my top five?
It’s funny. The plot is just so completely random and the main character, Shane, is so disinterested in the whole thing. He kind of just happens to get himself in to this mess. There is also a whole bunch of funny bits including an abusive girlfriend, a deaf receptionist, and a dead-end job at an insurance company. I saw Neilan at Powells when he was making his rounds promoting the paperback edition. He’s a funny guy. Now, why hasn’t he written anything else?

Top 5 Favorite Books:
5) sex.lies.murder.fame. by Lolita Files
4) Einstein’s Dreams by Alan Lightman
3) Apathy and Other Small Victories by Paul Neilan
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My Top Five Favorite Books

Number Four
Einstein’s Dreams
by Alan Lightman

Einstein’s Dreams is a horrible, horrible book to take with you on long flight. This one time I was flying from Portland, Oregon to Reno, Nevada and I picked this book to keep me entertained on the flight. I ended up reading the entire thing before even getting on the plane. What can I say? I couldn’t put it down. There is no real story in this book. Instead it’s a collection of different ideas about how time could work.

What is the book about?
Einstein’s Dreams is a fictional collage of stories dreamed by Albert Einstein in 1905, when he worked in a patent office in Switzerland. As the defiant but sensitive young genius is creating his theory of relativity, a new conception of time, he imagines many possible worlds. In one, time is circular, so that people are fated to repeat triumphs and failures over and over. In another, there is a place where time stands still, visited by lovers and parents clinging to their children. In another, time is a nightingale, sometimes trapped by a bell jar.

Why is it in my top five?
It’s very, very interesting. I like the different concepts of time that the book puts forth. My favorite one is where time moves slower if a person is in a state of motion. So people who sit around will age faster while the more active people will stay younger and live longer. In this world, people put wheels on their house to keep them moving even while they sleep. Plus, like I implied earlier, it’s a quick read. Since it’s essentially a collection of time-themed fables it’s easy to pick up and read a story or two before bed.

Top 5 Favorite Books:
5) sex.lies.murder.fame by Lolita Files
4) Einstein’s Dreams by Alan Lightman
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My Top Five Favorite Books

Number Five
sex.lies.murder.fame.
by Lolita Files

I worked at Borders at the time and an ARC of sex.lies.murder.fame. came across my desk. What caught my attention was the cover. The ARC cover was the exact same one as the hardback edition minus the words. This cover was just the silhouettes of a girl, lips, a knife, and film. I thought it was a very sexy cover and bold too. How many covers could get away without putting the title or the author on the front?

What is the book about?
Gifted with rock star looks and a genius IQ, Penn Hamilton has been inspiring awe since he was a baby. Now he’s ready to take on the world and claim his rightful place in the midst of celebrity. As a Writer. Rapper. Model. God. Unfortunately, the world’s not quite ready for him.

But when Penn meets Beryl Unger, high-powered editrix to literati and glitterati alike, sparks fly. Sparks fly even higher when he meets one of Beryl’s authors, superstar romance author Sharlyn Tate. Two women, one man. A man with no boundaries, who will stop short of nothing—even brutal, vicious murder—to have the success and adulation he so desperately desires.

Why is it my top five?
I remember thinking that this was a really funny book. It’s not funny-”haha” but funny-”hmm”. It’s a satire but not one that will make you laugh out loud. On top of that, the main character is so incredible narcissistic that you can’t help but hate him. Come to think of it, I can’t remember a single character that I would describe as “likable”. It’s been a couple years since I’ve read this book, but it had made enough of an impression on me. This book is the one that introduced me to the concept of meta-fiction because near the end it does become very meta-fictional.

Top 5 Favorite Books:
5) sex.lies.murder.fame. by Lolita Files
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Everything Matters
by Ron Currie Jr.
Viking, June 2009
320 pages

I picked up Ron Currie Jr.‘s second book, Everything Matters!, within a month of it being released in hardback. I recall liking his first book God Is Dead so I naturally needed his next novel. However, once I bought it, the book found a place on my bookshelf and went unread until this past month. I can’t believe I waited this long because this book is fantastic.

Everything Matters! follows the life of John Junior who, while in his mother’s womb, is told that the world is going to end in 36 years, 168 days 14 hours, and 23 seconds from a comet that is on a collision course with earth. This brings up the question that will haunt John Jr for the rest of the novel: Does anything I do matter?

The novel mainly follows Junior’s life from pre-birth to death. Often the book will change perspective and start telling the story as seen through the eyes of his friends and family. This works out really well because, unlike Junior, they do not know about the impending apocalypse. All they see is Junior acting weird or vanishing for long periods of time.

Out of all the other characters I have to say I liked John Senior the most. The author has done a good job of describing the way a son sees his father. To John Jr., his dad is a stoic, silent figure who would do anything to protect his sons even if he wont come right out and say it. It was very real to me to the point where I was emotionally moved when later on in the book Junior is racing to try and find a cure for his father’s cancer while putting his own life in danger.

One question you will undoubtable have is how does Junior know the world is going to end? In the novel he is told this information by a voice that is in his head. Yes, it sounds crazy and for the first part of the book you might think that he is crazy. But the omnipresence voice is in fact a real and will be with Junior for his entire life, helping him along the way. There are a couple of theories I have about the origin of the voice, but I’m not going to bother to comment on them because I would hate to ruin any part of this book for you.

Speaking of the voice, in the chapters where the voice is talking to Junior, they are written using second-person narrative. They often reminded me of the Choose Your Own Adventure books because the voice would lay out a choice for Junior. “You could save your father but it would mean risking your own life TURN TO PAGE 134 or You know your father would never do anything to put you in harms way. You could honor his wishes. TURN TO PAGE 251”. The voice also reminds me of the passages from The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy when the guide is explaining the importance of towels, Vogons, or the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation. When I was reading the chapters in EM! featuring the voice is came out as being read by Stephen Fry. Therefore, the voice in EM! is Stephen Fry and he is the one who warned Junior about earth’s destruction. Oh, shoot. Sorry. I was going to keep my theories to myself.

Anyway, like The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, Everything Matters! is, in fact, a whole remarkable book. Not because it’s slightly cheaper than other books, but because it’s amazing how Ron Currie Jr was able to tell the story of a boy who knows the fact of the world and how he manages to cope of find the answer to the question, Does anything I do matter?.

By the way, the answer is not 42.

Second Opinions:
Fyrefly’s Book Blog
The New Dork Review of Books
bookmomma

Booking Through Thursday asks: Series? Or Stand-alone books?

Stand-alone. I like having a sense of finality when I am done reading a book. Sure, there are some book series that are fantastic (Harry Potter, Lemony Snicket, etc) but I think though are more geared towards younger readers as a way to hook them into reading. I’ve also noticed that mystery books tend to be made up of a series. Janet Evanovich, Sue Grafton, that one author who writes murder mysteries about food. I think writing a series is more often used for profit because of an already established readership. I’m not saying these books are bad, but it seems like an easy crutch to lean on.

Yet another children’s books being adapted in to a film.