The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

• Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: Washington Square Press; Reprint edition (October 9, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743298039
• ISBN-13: 978-0743298032
• List Price: $15.00
• I finished this book on Dec. 18

This book was recommended to me by an English teacher at my school, who said to me: "If you like Rebecca, you will like this." P.S. I effing love Rebecca. Lurve. Anyway, so I got the book, and I must say: I was not disappointed.
Okay: Margaret Lea loves books about as much as I do. She works in a family owned Antiquarian Bookshop and reads lots of history, and occasionally writes a biography of various crusty old dead men for fun. Vida Winter is a prolific author. She has written about a bajillion books and has an air of mystery, mostly due to the fact that she has never ever told the truth about her personal life. One day Miss Lea gets a letter from the mysterious Ms. Winter, requesting her services as a biographer. Best part? Lea has never read any of her books. Hee.
Margaret reluctantly signs on to a trial run with the author, but Ms. Winter insists on telling the story her way - as a story, in order without answering questions. So she proceeds to spin a yarn of such craziness, such gothic goodness, that Miss Lea cannot resist seeing the story through. Let me tell you my lovelies, this is some good shit. Insanity ensues. Ms. Winter tells the story of Angelfield, the place she grew up, otherwise known as nutbar central, or, the house that fucking crazies built.
There's a lot about twins and family and secrets. Very cool stuff. The parts where Mrs. Winter is telling the story are the best parts, and the parts where Margaret is researching are not as good at first, but totally get better. This is good rainy day reading, or good snowy weekend reading (as we have just had here). Okay, it's pretty much good reading regardless of the meteorological conditions.
I have not heard of Diane Setterfield, the author, before, but I can tell you she has fantastic hair. Beyond that, you'll have to look here. Also: the book has a rather dramatic, clunky website with little meat and lots of graphics, but A for effort, you know?

The Rules of Survival by Nancy Werlin

• Reading level: Young Adult
  
• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: DIAL (September 7, 2006)
• ISBN-10: 0803730012
• ISBN-13: 978-0803730014
• List Price: $16.99
• I finished this book on Mar. 29

Hmm, this is not the type of book I would normally choose to read. I usually try to stay away from dramas, or sad books or movies of any kind. Having said that, things here did not turn out as grim as they could have, so that's a plus.
This story is a letter from older brother Matt to his little sister Emmy detailing the events of their childhood that Emmy is too young to remember. They have one other sister, Callie, and they lived with their crazy, abusive mother, Nikki. Matt's story tells how horrible Nikki was and how they learned to stand up to her...and eventually escape. Even though I knew the whole time that they are gonna get away (Matt says it right in the beginning) I still spent the whole book concerned for them. I suppose that' s the point. I would like to point out that I called one of the major parts of the climax of the plot early on. (I feel that I maybe watch too much Law & Order: SVU that I was able to guess that with such accuracy.) In any event, I was pretty pleased with the way things turned out in the end. There was no overly unbelievable happy ending, but things worked out okay. There was even some nice moral questions and other interesting points raised in the denouement.
Like I said, I would usually shy away from books like this, because I tend to be overly worried about what happens. For this reason, I have never read A Boy Called "It", which I know is very popular with the teens. I just can't bring myself to do it: I know it will depress the hell out of me, and who is that fun for. Either way, I think this book would appeal to teens for the same reason. There is some pretty scary stuff that these kids go through. Even so, I'm not sorry I read it. The ending was good, I liked Matt's narration. I think the letter writing thing made for a cool set up. I'm not saying I'm going to run and seek out another bummer child abuse book, cause I'm not. But this one was worth reading, and nothing like the last book I read by Ms. Werlin.

Heart Shaped Box by Joe Hill

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow (February 13, 2007)
• ISBN-10: 0061147931
• ISBN-13: 978-0061147937
• List Price: $24.95
• I finished this book on Mar. 13

So, okay, remember in my last post where I was groaning that I needed a good old ghost story to help me get over wasting 320 pages of my life reading about rich, snobby....zzzzzz. Oh! Sorry, fell asleep a little bit there. Anyway, this little beauty totally hit the spot for me. Thank you, Mr. Hill!
Judas Coyne (best rock star name ever?) is an aging rock star who specializes in gothy darkness in the vein of (my boyfriend) Trent Reznor. Mr Coyne keeps a collection of macarbe artifacts; so when the opportunity comes up to buy a ghost online (in the form of the dead man's would-be burial suit) he jumps at it. Long story short this is a real and terrifying ghost and there is more behind the ghost buying scheme than meets the eye. Crazy scribble eyed ghost man comes and menaces Jude and his girlfriend Georgia (yeah, that's right, they both have myspace pages. dig it.) Okay, so the dead people with black scribbles over their eyes really creep me out. Why is it always the eyes? Remember creepy button eyes? Cripes. So anywho, many personal demons as well as actual ghosts (I was tempted to call them flesh and blood ghosts there, but I thought better of it) are faced and the whole thing is really a good ride.
Now the truth: I read this book because someone left a review of it for me in the inbox at work (pays to be a vocal booknerd). We are both Stephen King fans, and guess what? Joe Hill happens to be Mr. King's son. Apparently, everyone in that family loves pseudonyms (right, Richard Bachman?) But I can't blame him for wanting to distance himself from his father's giganticized shadow. And the book really surpassed my expectations. The answer to the big question? Is it like his dad's books? A bit. Is it his own as well? I think so. There is only a faint sniff of SK in there, not an overpowering stench.
But I have to say this about that: he totally sounds like his father and shares the strange (Maine accent, I'm guessing) cadence to his speaking voice. Where did I hear it? On his super cool website where he talks about the new book. There is a cool song and cool graphics. There is also a trailer for the book, and I love that. It reminds me of book outtakes, which I also love. Well played, Mr. Hill.

Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Scribner; Reprint edition (July 1, 1995)
• ISBN-10: 068480154X
• ISBN-13: 978-0684801544
• List price: $10.00
  
• I finished this book on Mar. 11
• This book is number 28 on the list.
  

So, let me admit something here: I have read all the books on the list that remotely appealed to me, and am now plodding through with the rest. I chose this Fitzgerald because I had liked The Great Gatsby. Unfortunately, I did not find this book to be nearly as interesting.
This might make me seem stupid, and that's fine with me: but I did not get this. I mean, I understood what was going on. But I did not understand why I was supposed to care, I was all: "Why am I reading about this?" I still don't know.
Dick and Nicole Diver are this 1920's expatriate power couple. Rosemary, an 18 year old actress finds them charming and immediately falls in love with Dick within the first few pages. When this happened, I was already mad. I wished she was going to fall for the other guy, Abe North, don't ask why but I found him way more interesting. A about a hundred or so pages later still no affair, though they both love each other. End book one, and I'm all: "What?" Anyway, we find out that Dick married Nicole after treating her for being a total nutbar and they don't ever really seem to like each other except for one overheard moment of two sentence sexiness. Later, Nicole goes astronaut diapers crazy again for a few pages. She eventually gets better while Dick gets less successful, less attractive and more of a lush. Boo to that.
I do not appreciate a book in which my romantic lead A. never has good sex B. never gets anything he wants and C. in fact becomes a total loser. I also do not appreciate the shift of perspective to a character whom I never liked (ie: Nicole). Though, I must say, I did like her tryst with Tommy at the end, because I love when a woman breaks from convention and does her own thing, a la A Doll's House though in this one Nicole keeps her kids. I get that there are messages here, or I am supposed to feel something for Dick's descent into mediocrity, but I'm not feeling it.
So, yeah, not a fan. I'm sure there are many people who would like this one, but I am not that girl. For anyone reading, I recommend using the SparkNotes page on the book as a guide, because there sure is some stuff that happens that I didn't get the first time. I am sorta starting to dread the idea of reading more books like this. Alright, I have to go find a good ghost story or something to get this taste out of my mouth...

Blood Brothers by Michael Schiefelbein

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Alyson Books (October 1, 2002)
• ISBN-10: 1555837298
• ISBN-13: 978-1555837297
• I finished this book on Feb. 21

Let me paint a picture for you, boys and girls. Imagine me (diminutive librarian wannabe) looking for fun vampire books to inter library loan. Blood Brothers comes up and the way I understand it is that it's a vampire book about gay boys. Now, I heart vampires, and I love the gays, in other words, I'm so there. So, I order it. Now imagine me going to pick it up and getting a load of the gayest cover ever!!! I mean, really kids, this cover is not joking around at all. The title might as well have been Gay Porn. Needless to say, I was embarrassed to check it out, and I am never embarrassed about stuff like this. Folks, I chuckled about this one all the way home. Which I feel is healthy, because everyone should have a laugh at their own expense once in a while.
So, okay, now let me tell you this: I get it home and start to read (how can you not?) and...it's not about vampires. I was a little annoyed at this, but I must say that the plot was really not bad, even though there was no creatures of the night. Turns out that every other book by this guy is a vampire book and I'm an idiot. What it is about is Spanish monks. Seriously. Their names are Juan Ramon and Bernardo. No, really. So anyway, Juan Ramon's parents were brutally killed in front of him when he was a wee boy. The guy behind the killing is his father's business partner Esteban (seriously). Juan Ramon lies out a Count of Monte Cristo style revenge plot, centered around getting to Esteban through his monk son, Bernardo. Things don't turn out the way he planned, of course, because they fall in love.
The book is written from the points of view of both men, in alternating chapters. Juan Ramon's chapters reminded me a little bit of the narrator Frank, from The Postman Always Rings Twice, not big on emotion and a bit vulgar, but sort of likable. In my head I kept trying to set this book in the past, but then a computer would show up and it would ruin my mojo. I guess I don't think of monks running around on trains in Spain in 2007.
To be honest, the book also raised some interesting ideas of God and chastity and sin. The problem of sexuality for the monks was more about temptation and celibacy, not the fact that they were homosexual. I did have a little problem with the end because one of the characters does something so against what the previous 200 pages has told us about him. But I can't really dog it too much, I was, after all, expecting vampires.
I wouldn't recommend this for anyone offended by man love (obviously) and if you are new to gay literature, I wouldn't start here. This is more a gay harlequin romance than literature, per se. There are a lot of good gay YA books out there that aren't too graphic. Those interested should read Geography Club by Brent Hartinger or Rainbow Boys by Alex Sanchez. The latter is written in the same style as Blood Brothers, with different characters narrating in different chapters. For the latest gay news online check out The Advocate or AfterElton.com.

Rebel Angels by Libba Bray

• Paperback: 592 pages
• Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers; Reprint edition (December 26, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385733410
• ISBN-13: 978-0385733410
• List Price: $9.99
• I finished this book on Feb. 14

So, this one is the sequel to A Great and Terrible Beauty. Could these titles be any cooler? Plus, I'm digging the cover art, pretty girls, excellent font, check them out here, and here. And did I mention that our author's name sounds like one of her characters' names? Cause it does.
In this edition our heroine Gemma discovers that her actions at the end of the last book have left some serious repercussionsin the Realms (a magic world she can visit). Sexy Indian Kartik is back and Gemma also has a new suitor, Simon. There is suitable tension and quite a good twist in there, as well as Victorian Era teen girl hijinks.
One thing I was surprised by in the first book, and even more so in this one, is the use of some real 'issues'. Things like cutting, incest/rape, and drug addict parents are things I normally think of when I'm thinking modern realistic fiction, not period pieces. But, they are all present here. It doesn't bother me though, maybe because they aren't overly dramatic in context. I guess I just didn't think that girls in corsets were cutting themselves. Little did I know.
In other news, I like the About the Author blurb in the back of the book which urges the reader to visit the author's website (but if you're busy, she understands) so I did. I was not that impressed with it. I thought the Random House site was only marginally better. However, in my searching I did come across some serious fan sites (apparently people are really crazy about Gemma and the girls) as well as info about the upcoming movie. Is every YA book ever being made into a movie?? I think so. So, there should be another book in this series coming out sometime this year. I'll keep my eye out for it, hopefully it will also have an excellent title.

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Everyman's Library; New Ed edition (December 17, 1992)
• ISBN-10: 185715133X
• ISBN-13: 978-1857151336
• List Price: $21.58
• I finished this book on Feb. 6
• Number 4 on the list.
  

Okay, so I think that everyone has an idea about this book. It's one of those books that you hear about, and maybe wonder about. I admit I was very curious, having seen the newer film version, to get my hands on it.
For those who don't know, Lolita is often banned, challenged and considered obscene, as are many of the books on the list (see which ones, here). It is the confession of a man in prison. Humbert Humbert stole away his 12 year old stepdaughter and systematically raped her for years. Hum unapologetically explains his thought processes and habits. Though the sex scenes are never very graphic, the explanations of his habits are still disturbing.
Somehow, though the subject matter is upsetting and in fact there really is no uplifting message nor is there redemption at any point, I found Humbert's telling of the story easily accessible. I found him poetic, and while I didn't sympathize with him, I'm not even going to lie that there were times when I was rooting for him. Though the whole of Humbert's tale is about child rape, there were really only two sections I found overly disturbing, and they were both brief and not at all graphic. I have a feeling I was not as freaked as I thought I would be because you kinda go into it knowing what it's about and that's what you're getting into. You are prepared. Plus, like I said, Humbert is an eloquent story-teller.
Movie side note: In the film version Jeremy Irons plays Hum. Though I find him wonderful in the role, the Humbert of the book is very handsome. While I find Irons oddly attractive, he is not, perhaps, as beautiful as the novel's Humbert proclaims himself to be. Okay, sorry, back to the book.
The book uses a lot of repetition, as well as copious allusions to other works. Humbert also goes to great pains to describe Lolita to us. Her beauty her actions, his feelings. At times, it's actually sort of romantic, until you remember that he's talking about a little girl. One thing that kept bugging me throughout, is that our main character speaks French, a lot. With no translation. I could understand some of this from high school French, but not much. It wouldn't have killed me to know what he was really saying in this parts, I'm just saying. There were some sections where the action of the story dragged, but Humbert's narration usually brought me through them without boredom. In researching this book after reading it, I liked coming across all the different covers. A google image search shows several different, as well as pictures from the movie, if you interested, dearies. The cover I have is simply the title and a flower with some wilted petals. Lame-o. I prefer the lips, or the pigeon-toed legs covers, personally.
So, the moral of this story is: I liked this book the most so far out of the ones I've read from the list.

A Distant Soil: Coda by Colleen Doran

• Paperback: 184 pages
• Publisher: Image Comics (March 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 158240478X
• ISBN-13: 978-1582404783
• List Price: $17.99
• I finished this book on Jan. 8

Oh my, boys and girls. Let me tell you a story about A Distant Soil. Here's me on my big comfy chair with a blanket and one to two purring snuggly kitties. I'm reading A Distant Soil: The Aria (Book 3) and I'm starting to get close to the end. I say to the kitties "Gee, I'll bet there's like a cheesy wrap it up quick ending because I'm getting close to the end of the book and there's still a lot going on." The cats nod and go back to sleep. Then they wake in fear at my screams of anguish when I get to the end of the book and it wasn't the end! I had no idea. I had taken books one through three from the library. Since it was all they had I assumed it was a trilogy. Anyway, I had to wait quite a while for my order of the fourth book to come in.
While it definitely sated my hunger temporarily it was not the quenching drink of great graphic novel goodness I was hoping for. This is mainly due to the fact that it's still not the last book and worse...the final book is not out yet. Boo to that.
The story of this graphic novel as best as I can relay it is thus: Seren is the embodiment of a God on his planet, but is at best a figurehead and at worst a slave to the sadistic politicians that make up the hierarchy. He leads a double life, that of the Avatar, and that of a leader of the resistence against the heirarchy. He travels to Earth and recruits two human youths who are the children of one of Seren's teacher. This makes them half of his race, and they turn out to be exceptionally powerful beings. With the help of other human fighters they try to take on the Heirarchy. Craziness goes down, however, and they end up cutting off Seren's beautiful man ponytail.
So the story is amazing, though I realize my description makes little to no sense. This particular volume wasn't my favorite so far though, I must admit. This is probably because the relationship between Seren and D'mer is my favorite part and they were apart for the whole book. I had to take solace in D'mer hitting on the super uncomfortable Kovar. One thing I do like about these books is that everyone is beautiful and almost naked all the time (mmmm, cartoon sex). They are funny and sexy ( I'm totally into man on man action!). I really could cry and laugh on the same page. The illustrations are amazing and I love pretty much everything about it. The only reason this doesn't get the Bee seal of approval-love is because it's not the effin end to the story. The moral of the story is, though, that you should read it.
Check out the site here

Coraline by Neil Gaiman, illustrated by Dave McKean

Hardcover: 176 pages
Publisher: HarperCollins (July 2, 2002)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0380977788
ISBN-13: 978-0380977789
List Price: $15. 99

I read this little book the other night, and I must admit that I had to sit up to finish it so I could know whether or not this book had a happy ending. The reading level for this book is listed at about 9 - 12 but I must confess that this gore loving scary movie junkie totally got the creepies from it.
Little Coraline is very smart, very bored, and very ignored by her parents. As you can probably guess this a bad combination and she gets into trouble. She finds a door to another version of her apartment with another version of her parents, who are waiting to make her theirs. Except they have buttons for eyes. That's right buttons for eyes. Does that give anyone the heebie jeebies other than me? Yikes. Anyway, they keep getting creepier and creepier until Coraline has to fight her way out.
In a related note why can't my cats talk like the one in this book? They would be more interesting, even if they only said 'feed me'.
I also found from some preliminary poking that this is going to be an animated movie with Dakota Fanning and Teri Hatcher. I have some problems with this. I know DF is really cute and talented but does she have to be in every child role ever? I also would like to see her tackle some older parts because I think she could really pull it off. Oooh, sorry, this is a book blog. But you can probably expect that I will talk about movies made from books I've read, just to let you know. But I think that the movie could be really cool, so I'll be sure to keep you updated.
This book was cool and creepy and definitely worth the short time it took to read.