I reviewed this book originally a month ago. It get released in bookstores and Amazon today so I am reposting this review.

Title: Quarantine
Author: Rahul Mehta
Pages: 224
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Published: May 31st, 2011
Where I got the book: ARC from Harper Perennial

From the back cover:

With buoyant humor and incisive, cunning prose, Rahul Mehta sets off into uncharted literary territory. The characters in Quarantine—openly gay Indian-American men—are Westernized in some ways, with cosmopolitan views on friendship and sex, while struggling to maintain relationships with their families and cultural traditions. Grappling with the issues that concern all gay men—social acceptance, the right to pursue happiness, and the heavy toll of listening to their hearts and bodies—they confront an elder generation’s attachment to old-country ways. Estranged from their cultural in-group and still set apart from larger society, the young men in these lyrical, provocative, emotionally wrenching, yet frequently funny stories find themselves quarantined.

Review:

I’m not quite sure what drew me to this book, but I was excited to read it. It may have stemmed from the book Blue Boy by Rekesh Satyal, one of my favorite books in a long while. Blue Boy centered around a young Indian American boy who was different from the kids in his school because he was Indian and outcasted by the other Indian American kids because he acted strange and liked to play with make-up and dolls. Just the descriptions of an Indian American family trying to keep with tradition in America sparked my interest in Indian culture. Now that I think about it, White Teeth by Zadie Smith is another book I’ve read that touches upon this theme is old tradition versus today’s society. Although White Teeth isn’t a book I would recommend reading.
What makes Blue Boy and Quarantine so compelling, at least to me, is the contrasting differences between tradition and today’s modern society. Quarantine, through its collection of short stories, offers different perspectives on the same theme but focuses on the idea of being gay in a culture that may not be accepting of that lifestyle. In the stories the main characters will often get wrapped up in what is expected of them by their family, from taking care of an ill grandparent to moving to New York and becoming successful at a big publication, and have to try to put aside their own personal wants.
In most of the short stories, the main character has a boyfriend/partner who, whether they like it or not, get pulled in to the Indian culture by association. I kind of wish the boyfriends and their thoughts were explored a little more because I would have liked to know what they made of Indian culture and if they had a hard time understanding why the main character had to travel to India to take care of his grandmother.
My favorite story from the book was Citizen. It stuck out like a sore thumb because instead of being about an openly gay Indian American, it told the story of an older Indian women who is forced to move to American to live with her children after her husband dies. Her children want her to become an American citizen but since she is up there in her years, she has a hard time understanding the english language and the questions on the citizenship test. It’s equal parts heartwarming and sad. This woman would rather be back in Bombay than in America but all the decisions about her life are being made by her children who don’t even seem to have time for her. She only spends three months of the year before being passed along to the next of her four children.
Going in to this book I knew it was fiction but it wasn’t until the second story, when the names of the characters suddenly changed on me, did it full set in as fiction. It read like a memoir and that’s how my mind was first interpreting it. Even if it is fiction, I could easily see how some aspects from the stories might be based on real life events for the author.

Closing Thoughts: I really enjoyed this book. It was very well written, and I was able to relate to the characters in the book because conflict between two generations is something, I feel, most people can relate to.

Looks like the trailer for the US adaption of the best selling book, which a friend of mine once described at “rapey”, had finally found its way on to the interweb. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (US adaptation) stars Daniel Craig as Mikael Blomkvist and Rooney Mara as Lisbeth Salander. There’s a pretty good chance that anybody who really cares has already seen the Swedish version (or read the book) so there’s not going to be much of a surprise in terms of “who dunnit”. I will say this much, the trailer is pretty awesome looking. Too bad I think the story is crap.

Title: Wire to Wire
Author: Scott Sparling
Pages: 392
Publisher: Tin House Books
Published: May 24th, 2011
Where I got the book: ARC from Tin House

From the back cover:

Wire to Wire assembles a cast of train-hopping, drug-dealing, glue-huffing lowlifes, tells a harrowing tale of friendship and loss, and creates a stunning portrait of Northern Michigan in the late 1970s.

While riding a freight car through Detroit, Michael Slater suffers a near-fatal accident—a power line to the head. After recovering, he tries to lead a quiet life in the desert, but his problems just follow him. Slater returns to his native Michigan to seek out his old train-hopping pal, only to find that the Pleasant Peninsula of his youth is none too pleasant. Before long he finds his way into a love triangle, gets caught in the schemes of the resident drug lord, and manages to end up on the wrong side of everyone and everything in the small town of Wolverine. When the violent sociopath Slater left to die in the desert tracks him down, the chance of getting out of this hell unscathed starts to look slim.

Three years later, Slater sits in a dark video-editing suite, popping speed like penny candy, trying to reconcile himself with the unfilmed memories that haunt his screens and his conscience.

Scott Sparling’s debut novel, with echoes of Robert Stone and Denis Johnson, pays homage to one of our most popular and enduring genres—the American crime novel.

108 Page Impression:

I don’t know what’s wrong with me. It seemed every where I looked people were praising Scott Sparling’s debut novel, Wire to Wire. Publishers Weekly said that “Sparling’s debut is well crafted and thrilling, tying together an obvious love for both Michigan and railroads with an expert sense of timing and plot. The world he has created is both overwhelming and exhilarating, thanks in no small part to a large ensemble of memorable characters and a relentless pace.” Then there is the Portland Book Review where they said “it’s rare to find so many interesting and compelling characters in a single book.”

I, however, could not manage to get interested enough to finish this book. I read 108 pages before I set the book down and forgot about it. The truth is, I wasn’t enjoying, but I felt as if I should be. If I were to continue reading, it would only be because I was forcing myself to not because I felt a connection with the characters or the story. The Portland Book Review did bring to my attention that “the first few chapters seem disjointed and hard to track, but it is well worth the effort to follow the story to the end.” Mayhaps I just didn’t give the book enough of a chance and that I need to finish the book to appreciate it. But when there are so many books out there, reading those remaining 300(ish) pages seems like an impossible task.

What about the book did I not enjoy? If I am going to dislike the book, I’d better back up my arguments. There were two main things that rubbed me the wrong way. First, the novel starts off kind of choppy. In the first two chapter alone the reader is offered glimpses of Micheal Slater’s life right after the train accident, his life in Sonora, and his life in Detroit. And none of these points in time are given much explanation on why these events matter so much or how they relate to each other aside from the obvious sharing of the main character. They seemed like flashes of his life and were akin to introducing three different characters who just happened to share the same name. The second thing that bugged me was the main character, Michael Slater, isn’t very likeable. He came off as a slacker with no real life plan or goals. All these things that happen to him happen without him choosing them. Michael also is a big push over. He agrees to help a man with loading some horses in to a trailer which then turns in to Michael helping him unload them and becomes Michael witnessing the owner shoot the horses. The thing is, Michael knows nothing about horses. Why he agreed to go along with it escapes me. Why didn’t he drive away when he had the chance? The main character comes off as apathetic and is unwilling to argue or fight for what he wants.

Now, just because I didn’t enjoy what I read of this book doesn’t mean it’s a bad book. Other people are really liking it. I encourage you to check out the excepts of Wire to Wire on Tin House’s web site or even Amazon
.

Closing Thoughts: I really wanted to like it, but the first 108 pages weren’t enough to suck me in. If this sounds like a book that you would be interested, leave me a comment and I will go ahead and mail you the my ARC.

Question: For fellow book bloggers, do you blog about the books you don’t finish?

Booking Through Thursday asks: Do you ever feel like you’re in a reading rut? That you don’t read enough variety? That you need to branch out, spread your literary wings and explore other genres, flavors, styles?

I think for the most part I read a pretty diverse range of books. Right now, however, I am in a pulp fiction rut, although I really wouldn’t call it a rut. After I finish my current book, I will be switching genres, but I am not sure to what.

There is another kind of rut that I do face from time to time. The “I don’t feel like reading” rut. I’ll still be reading at least one book, but it will take me forever to finish it and have no desire to start another book after I finish. These ruts are the hardest because I normally don’t feel like writing too. I just lay around the apartment watching movies and playing video games. It’s very un productive.

Word around the internet this morning is Hothead Games, makers of Penny Arcade Adventures and DeathSpank, are making a new video game based off of Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. No other details at this time (the day is still young). Mayhaps we’ll hear more about this game as E3 draws closer. Here’s a teaser image that’s been floating around with the announcement. Edit: You can check out the office site here.

For those of you who prefer to keep it old skool, go play the original text based Hitchhiker’s Guide game instead.

An online serial by Colin Matthew, Art by Terry Blas

Part 10 – The Art of Biting

Often times people would describe wine in the most pretentious way possible. A nice merlot might be described as having a robust aroma with a fruity, oaky flavor intensity that leaves a soft aftertaste on ones palate. These people were delicious to vampires because their blood would have a robust aroma with a fruity, oaky flavor intensity that leaves a soft aftertaste on ones fangs.
Chase’s blood, however, lacked a bouquet of flavor and was rather acetic. All in all, it was rather unpleasant and caused the female vampire to quickly remove her fangs and spit the blood out of her mouth.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” she yelled. “That’s the grosses thing i’ve ever tasted.”
Chase, still trying to figure out what was happening, placed his hand on his neck and removed it to discover that he was bleeding. “You bit me!” he cried.
“Yeah, just consider yourself lucky that you taste gross.”
“I don’t taste gross.,” he said. “You taste gross.” He was never very good at insults.
She crossed her arms, looking annoyed. “Good comeback. You do know I am a vampire, right?”
“No. I though you were just biting my neck because you liked me,” he said, sarcastically.
Her eyes narrowed as she glared at him. “I was biting your neck because I thought you were a wizard. But that is not what a wizard should taste like.”
It began to dawn on Chase the situation he was in. He slowly took a step back. “You’ve killed wizards before?”
“Well, no,” she said sheepishly. “Everybody just says that wizards taste better than normal humans.”
“Sorry to disappoint,” he said and sounded like he meant it. The two of them just stood there for a moment, neither making eye contact with the other. “So, uh, am I free to go?”
The female vampire pulled her gaze away from the spot on the floor where she was staring. “What? Oh. Yeah, I guess.”
Chase stepped closer to the door leading down to the stairs. He turned and asked, “You haven’t happened to have seen my friends around? You know, other wizards.”
She nodded. “They are being held on the third floor. But I wouldn’t go up there if I were you. It’s full of vampires.”

Yesterday should have been the end of the world. But, luckily, it wasn’t. I still have a lot of books I’ve been meaning to read. On Twitter yesterday book bloggers were enjoying the #ApocalypseReads hashtag and were sharing their favorite end-of-the-world books. Even though the crisis has been adverted, I thought of a couple more Apocalyptic books…

5) Left Behind by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins

Left Behind was a book series that was wildly popular in the late 90′s/early 2000′s. The book starts with all the Christians are raptured leaving all the non-believers down on Earth. Shortly after that Nicolae Carpathia, a Romanian politician, begins his rise to power and assumes the role of the prophesied anti-Christ. It probably one of the book series that got me reading during a time in my life where I hated to read (high school). Thirteen year old me enjoyed these books because they had a lot of action and violence and drama and intrigue. In know that Left Behind is inspired by text extracted from the Bible, but for me these books were akin to science-fiction. It didn’t occur to me at the time, but now that I think about it, a lot of science-fiction does revolve around religion or a set of culture beliefs. Left Behind isn’t too far off.

There was originally twelve books to the series. But after the initial twelve the authors went on to write three more prequel books and one more book that takes place after the end of the world. I never read these last four, but I did manage to make my way through 11 ½ of the original twelve books. Book 12, Glorious Appearing, got really boring once Jesus showed up and I couldn’t bring myself to finish the book.

4) Gone by Michael Grant

Speaking of people mysteriously disappearing, Gone by Michael Grant is a six book series currently being published. Everyone over the age of fourteen disappears from a small ocean side town in California. I admit that I have not read this book, but I intend to one of these days. My partner, however, is currently reading the fourth book in the series. You can read his review of Gone here.

3) Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman.

How can we talk about the Apocalypse and not mention this book? In it, an angel and a demon try to delay the end of the world because they’ve both taken to enjoying living among the humans. I read this book shortly after finishing The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy for the first time. I remember, sadly, being disappointed in Good Omens because everybody says it’s such a fantastic book that I had incredible high expectations. My problem, I think, was that I just finished the Douglas Adam classic and my reading palate was accustom to something a little more absurd. I’m sure if I went back and re-read Good Omens I would enjoy it more the second time around. Sadly, my copy of the book has since gone missing.

2) The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

Speaking of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. The book starts with the world ending. Later on the Earth does somehow manage to reappear, but there is nothing like the tale of Arthur Dent traveling around the universe with his towel to cheer a reader up when the end is near.

1) Everything Matters! by Ron Currie Jr.

This is one of my favorite books in a long while. In his mother’s womb, Junior is told the exact moment when the world is going to end. He must live his life with this knowledge. Does he attempt to stop the inevitable? Or focus on making every moment count? You can read my review here. But seriously, check out this book.

Title: Bossypants
Author: Tina Fey
Discs: 5
Publisher: Hachette Audio
Published: April 5th, 2011
Where I got the book: Library

From the back cover:

Before Liz Lemon, before “Weekend Update,” before “Sarah Palin,” Tina Fey was just a young girl with a dream: a recurring stress dream that she was being chased through a local airport by her middle-school gym teacher. She also had a dream that one day she would be a comedian on TV.

She has seen both these dreams come true.

At last, Tina Fey’s story can be told. From her youthful days as a vicious nerd to her tour of duty on Saturday Night Live; from her passionately halfhearted pursuit of physical beauty to her life as a mother eating things off the floor; from her one-sided college romance to her nearly fatal honeymoon — from the beginning of this paragraph to this final sentence.

Tina Fey reveals all, and proves what we’ve all suspected: you’re no one until someone calls you bossy.

(Includes Special, Never-Before-Solicited Opinions on Breastfeeding, Princesses, Photoshop, the Electoral Process, and Italian Rum Cake!)

Review:

I’m not a big follower of celebrity memoir genre but for Tina Fey I made an exception. She is probably one of the funniest female comedians out there right now. Plus, she seems like she would be a super nice person. I like nice people, don’t you? Now when I made up my mind to read her book I opted for the audiobook format because it is read by Tina herself which really made it an incredible listening experience. Had it been read by somebody else, I would have gone with the print version.

If you are a fan of Tina Fey and/or enjoy her show, 30 Rock, you’ll probably get a lot out of this book. She talks about her childhood and family, in particular her father, and how she got in to acting. In the later part of the book she discusses creating a show for NBC, pitching it to the network, and how she copes with its consistently low ratings.

I always find memoirs hard to review because I can’t critique character development or plot structure. What is there really left to say other than it was interesting and I laughed? Both are true statements. The parts of the book were she talked about producing 30 Rock were of great interest to me because I find the politics of the television industry interesting. At the same time, though, it’s not technical enough to turn anybody off.

I liked that this wasn’t a word-for-word reading of the paper book. Whenever Tina refers to the book she calls it an audiobook. Also included is a PDF file to view on your computer which includes humiliating pictures and whatnot. In cases where Tina talks about a picture she points out that the listener can find it in the PDF file, so you aren’t missing out on anything when it comes to selecting the audiobook over the paper book.

Closing Thoughts: If you like Tina Fey, you should probably read it.

Question: Does it matter to you who an audiobook is read by?