The Book Pirate

Audrey Niffenegger. You might remember her from such books as The Time Traveler’s Wife or her latest Her Fearful Symmetry. I was super excited to learn that she would be visiting Powells and that she would be signing books. I remember reading TTTW a few years back and thought it was a fantastic blend of science-fiction and romance, a difficult balancing act on Niffenegger’s part. She recently released Her Fearful Symmetry which is so completely different from TTTW that it surprised me in a pleasant way. Second novels for authors are normally hit or miss because they are trying to be as good as their first one and consequently don’t take any risks.

At the signing she read from the chapter that talked about being a ghost and what they are capable of doing. After that she transitioned to the Q and A, the heart of any good book reading. The questions asked were good and Niffenegger answered them in ways gave us, the readers, a little insight in to what she was trying to accomplish with HFS. It’s a shame that books can’t include a bonus DVD that features a Making Of documentary that chronicles the writer as he/she writes the book. I think that would be awesome.

I should really get around to posting my thoughts on Her Fearful Symmetry shouldn’t I?

I discovered Gone one day when I was surfing the web and looking for books that were similar to The Girl Who Owned a City. I stumbled across a web site that pointed me to this book and I instantly went out and bought it.

You know aside from the fact that this book is about a world populated by kids and that sides are drawn and chosen, that’s really all that you can compare to The Girl Who Owned a City.

Imagine being 14 and sitting in class, you’re bored, nothing new and suddenly your teacher vanishes, right before your eyes. And not just your teacher, but several students as well. No one really knows what is happening so eventually you wander into the hallway. Other students are peeking out of the rooms, confused by the fact that their teachers and apparently, anyone over 15 is gone too.

That’s how Gone begins. It’s another difference. Other books where the world is populated by kids begin by putting you in the situation already. I appreciated how Gone began with you seeing what happens and how characters react to experiencing the adults disappear.

This event causes mass chaos. You can imagine, if an adult was lighting up a cigarette or something and they disappeared, something could catch on fire, and something does. Sam Temple, a young man who saved a bus full of children a few years back when the driver had a heart attack, begins to investigate and in the process attempts to save a little girl from a burning building. During the fight, the little girl suddenly shoots flames from her arms and in turn Sam reacts with a power of his own somewhat involuntarily. Green light shoots out of his hands and in the confusion, the little girl dies in the process.

Sam is probably the main character of the book, or one of the main characters. He, together with his friends Quinn and Edilio start trying to figure out what is going on in their little town of Perdido Beach, California. (Perdido means Lost for all you non-Spanish speakers out there.) Soon, a “nerd” girl named Astrid begins to help them despite the fact that she is more concerned with caring for her autistic little brother who everyone calls Little Pete. The three boys decide to help her find him considering he was most likely with her father at the towns nuclear power plant when the incident occured.

When they return to town they discover that some kids have begun calling Perdido Beach: The FAYZ. Fallout Alley Youth Zone. Some have discovered just how far out their problem goes and others are forming gangs and stealing. A select few have decided to set up a daycare for the babies and toddlers.

Enter Caine Sorren and a select group of students from the expensive private academy on the hill and things begin to get rough. Caine is manipulative and charming and has a plan of his own.

The book overall is exciting and fun and a terrific read. At 558 pages, it really only feels like 200. I read it so fast. Not to mention, when I was done, I went out and bought the sequel right away. Each chapter begins with a clock counting down, and it’s effective. It kept pushing me, wondering what exactly it was counting down to, although I must admit, halfway through the book I guessed but I don’t think that’s the point. When you guess you want to know even more.

The book includes s o many great things. It’s been described as Stephen King re-writing Lord of the Flies with a little X-Men dashed in. It’s pretty accurate. In the FAYZ, animals begin mutating. Kids begin to get powers and as X-Men shows us, when some people have visible powers and others don’t, well…things never go very well.

I recommend this to everyone who like YA fiction, superhero stories and stories about societies rules  breaking down due to catastrophic events.

Gone is written by Michael Grant.

Bust out your Crayola 120ct Crayons! It’s time for a coloring contest.

Patrick Wensink, author of Sex Dungeon For Sale!, is hosting a coloring contest where you can win fabulous prizes. And by fabulous prizes I mean a selection of Wensink’s favorite books of 2009. You can win signed copies of 4 books (Help! A Bear is Eating Me! [my review] and Fool are included, autographed BW). Oddly enough, he does not include a copy of his own book, Sex Dungeon For Sale. Perhaps Patrick does not think that highly of himself or maybe he is simply trying to save on postage. Regardless, you should totally enter.

Here’s how it works. Download and print the coloring page that you fancy. Each page is based off of a story from SD4S (My Son Thinks He’s French, Jesus Toast, Chicken Soup for the Kidnapper’s Soul). Color it in either by hand or digitally, then e-mail it to patrickwensink@gmail.com with your name, address and phone number. The deadline is December 14th. You can check out his rather random web site for more details if you still feel ill informed about this contest.

Bored to Death premiered on HBO this past Sunday. Created by Jonathan Ames (author of I Love You More Than You Know and The Extra Man), the show stars Jason Schwartzman as Jonathan Ames who gets depressed and becomes a detective after placing a post on craigslist. It also features “that guy” from The Hangover and Ted Danson.

The pilot episode, I hate to say, wasn’t very good. There is no explanation given as to what caused Jonathan Ames (character) to impulsively become a detective. Apparently he is a struggling writing but you wouldn’t know that based on the first episode. You also don’t discover his name until midway through the episode. It would seem as if the show doesn’t care about the motivation of the characters and just wants to jump in to the crime solving.

The show tries to come of as being noir-inspired but I can’t tell if they are actually trying to mimic the noir genre or trying to lampoon it.

The trailer makes it look like this will be a fun series to watch, so I will end up stilling with it. It also helps that I like Jason Schwartzman.

Jonathan Ames (author) has a blog about the show which is interesting to read if you have seen the pilot episode. It explains a lot of the little details.

Did anybody else watch this show?

I like the cover.

Blurb for the back cover:
“The shear amount of poetry contained in this book is daunting and you can’t help but love some poems but hate other”

What would my week long celebration of National Poetry Month be without a review of some poetry?

Tin House was nice enough to send me a review copy of their poetry anthology Satellite Convulsions a few months ago, and in my spare time I have been slowly reading it. Poetry for me is a hard thing to just sit down and read. I find it easier to enjoy in short little burst like when eating breakfast before work or waiting for a class to start. Unlike a novel, if I sit for a long period of time trying to read poem after poem, my brain will shut off and I will be reading the words but not processing them. I’ll zone out, if you will.

Satellite Convulsions is a collection of over one hundred different poets (106 total) and spans 235 pages. That’s right folks, 235 pages of pure, unadulterated poetry. It would be impossible to me to personally share my thoughts on every single poem. Ok, not impossible, but I don’t have that much spare time on my hands. Since I believe poetry is subjective, naturally my enjoyment of the poems contained in this book ranged from really enjoying it to couldn’t wait for the poem to be over. Because of this, the book works. The shear amount of poetry contained in this book is daunting and you can’t help but love some poems but hate other. I would recommend this book for the poetry enthusiast or someone who is wanting to expand their poetry horizon and discover new poets.

20 in 2009 Challenge: 5/20

It’s national poetry month and nobody told me. A couple of the blogs I read mentioned it here and there, but nobody said it loud enough to make it stick. Anyway, happy national poetry month!

I have a hard time talking about poetry in general because the subject matter is so subjective. When I took a poetry class in college I was surrounded by people who had been writing poetry for years. I, however, I had written only one poem in my entire 21 years leading up to that point. When we criticized poems they would see the puddle in the poem as being symbolic of confinement or mother nature or even God. When I talked about the puddle, I literally thought it was a puddle. It made sense in my mind. Mayhaps I am incapable of understanding the metaphors and whatnot that make up poetry.

One thing that bugs me about poetry is that I tend to read more bad poems than I do good ones. My theory in regards to bad poetry is that people often mistake it for good poetry because they do not understand it. Poetry is considered one of those “high class” art styles right? If we don’t understand it then it must be good. Seems like flawed logic to me. There are many bad poems out there. As soon as we come to terms with that the sooner we can learn from our mistakes.

Another thing I don’t understand about poetry is what is the point of having poems translated from one language to another? Say a poem was written in Spanish and translated to English. Is it the same poem? No, I do not think so. It is an entirely new poem inspired by the original.

That’s just my thoughts at least.

Poetry anyone?

Turns out he is here. 1,052 people dressed up as Waldo to break the world record while at the same time donating over 3,000 childrens book to the New Brunswick school system.

Blurb for the back cover:
“A coming of age story but with math”

In An Abundance of Katherines, Colin has just been dumped by his girlfriend Katherine. This would make the nineteenth occasion such an event has happened. All his past girlfriends have been named Katherine and all have dumped him. But after the nineteenth time, Colin has had enough and decides to use his child-prodigy status to develop a mathematical theory to determine if when a person in a relationship will be dumped by the other. He hopes that he will be able to figure out a way to get K-19 (the 19th Katherine) to take him back. This is all fine and dandy, but Colin’s best friend Hassan gets tired of his obsessiveness over K-19 and takes him on a road trip that ends in Gunshot, TN. They decide to stay awhile and befriend Lindsey who shows them what life is like in Gutshot.

The problem I faced with this book is that I read it right after finishing Paper Towns. I loved Paper Towns so I went in to this book with high expectations which is a mistake. That’s not to say this book is bad by no means. Paper Towns and An Abundance of Katherines are different books with similar writing styles. AAoK is more of a dramatic piece as it deals with Colin’s struggle to come to terms with his newly single status. This is really a coming of age story but with math involved. The Lindsey character is a catalyst that forces him to view life differently and leads Colin and Hassan on various adventures. Hassan is there for the comic relief and to provide some insight on how Colin’s thought process works.

I liked the book but felt that reading two different books by the same author back-to-back prevented me from reading them without comparing them to each other. AAoK is an enjoyable book and you should probably read it if you are a fan of John Green or are looking for a story about a road trip.

20 in 2009 Challenge: 4/20

It’s over! This past school term has been brutal for me. Taking three English classes at a time (in addition to a foreign language) may not be the best idea for one’s mental health. I think I only got one book read in the past three months that wasn’t required for one of my classes. I started Slaughterhouse Five in January and finished it yesterday. Now I am on spring break. I hope to tackle Christopher Moore’s Fool and at least one other book. I also need to catch up on my book blogging because in case you haven’t noticed, content has been kind of lax as of late. So, until I have something worth wild to say, may I recommend you check out Machine Man. It is a project from Max Barry who currently is on my Top 5 Author’s list. Each one of his books (The Company, Syrup, Jennifer Government) are well worth reading again and again. Machine Man is Barry’s attempt to put out a story via the internet in short increments. I think it’s being released at one page a day. Bite sized fiction anyone?